


Under The Water

by elena_fisher



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Depression, Drug Use, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Mild Language, Past Abuse, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-27 22:37:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15034811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elena_fisher/pseuds/elena_fisher
Summary: Sam, Sully and Charlie believe they are close to finding the Fountain of Youth but to pull it off they desperately need the help of a certain world class thief. Having quit the dangerous business some time ago, you are reluctant to throw your lot in with illegal treasure hunters again. Yet the boredom of living a normal life is enough to persuade you to reconsider and as events unfold you soon discover that you will never be able to truly escape your dark past.





	1. Small Beginnings

'Sera esta la tierra donde puedo encontrar la Fuente De La Juventud.'

-Juan Ponce De Leon, 1514

_(This will be the land where I can find the Fountain of Youth.)_

 

* * *

 

_Everything is silent. You cannot see nor hear anything. It feels as though you are drifting, not truly alive or dead, and for a moment there is nothing but tranquillity._

_You try to open your eyes but it is if they are glued shut. Eventually they open and begin to sting from the water that engulfs your entire body. You start to panic as you realise you are drowning and rapidly running out of air in your lungs. Your foot is caught on something, a rock at the bottom of the seabed, and you frantically kick your legs until you are free. You swim as fast as you can to the surface, just making it out of the sea and onto the sand in time to take in the biggest breath of your life. Coughing up water, you pull yourself onto land, noticing cuts and bruises all over your arms and legs on the way. You clutch your throbbing head and look up._

_Then you see it. The whole island in flames. Paralysis sets in and you cannot move a single muscle from fear. Then you remember what happened and you pick up your pace, ignoring the searing pain in you legs, and heads towards the carnage. There is debris everywhere but no sign of life and you wonder what you will find at the heart of the flames. But there is no way back now._

_A noise behind you forces you to turn back and you are met with a man dressed in all black; his face is covered with a scarf. A gloved hand makes harsh contact with your face and there is naught but darkness again._

 

* * *

 

 **Sam**                                                                     

“No, no Sam move the camera down so I can see your face. I got a great view of your ceiling.”

“What like this?”

“Now all I can see your crotch Sam,” Nate says on the screen, trying to stay patient with his technophobe of a brother. He’s getting there, slowly but surely. Emphasis on slowly. Sam moves the webcam again and finally it’s in the right place for them to have a proper conversation.

“About time grandpa,” Nate complains, chuckling.

“Alright wiseass, it’s not easy to get the hang of this shit. We didn’t exactly have Sky in prison.”

“Skype.”

“What?”

“It’s called Skype.”

“Whatever.” It’s taking him forever to readjust to the outside world now that technology has advanced so much and so fast. Every day he seems discover a new device or social media site that he’s never heard of before. He’s only just found about _instagram_ , which you apparently for you to put pictures up of your dog or your food or other pointless shit. It all seems so very bizarre to him. “Anyway, how’s Elena?” he asks his younger brother as he lights a cigarette, which gets a disapproving look from Nate. He’ll quit Monday.

“Still pregnant. And very moody,” Nate replies.

“I heard that!” Sam hears Elena say somewhere off screen and he can’t help but laugh at the two of them. He likes Elena a lot and he’s glad Nate is so happy with her. Even if he did feel guilty for nearly wrecking their marriage. Still, it’s all water under the bridge and the two of them are back on track now, living a normal life. Well, normalish.

“I love you hun,” Nate calls and Elena merely sighs in response. “Anyway, how’s London? Found anything yet?”

“Yeah Cutter reckons he has a lead on something but nothing solid yet. I’ve just been checking out all the sites. You know Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Natural History Museum.”

“Stop it man, you’re making me jealous.”

“You ever been to London?” Sam asks. He wishes he could show Nate all these places. He went to England before Nate was born with his parents. That was obviously before their mother passed away and their father dumped them in an orphanage. He misses her so damn much sometimes. But not his father. He can go to hell.

“Yeah a few years back but I spent most of the time I was there being shot at so I didn’t exactly get the guided tour,” Nate says, looking disappointed.

“Too bad, there’s a lot of history here, I wish you could see it all little brother.”

“I know I know. But I've gotta lot of stuff to sort out here.” He hears Elena call Nate’s name and Sam can tell by the sharpness of her tone that she’s irritated. “Oh, I gotta go, dinner’s ready.”

“Seriously man? You made a pregnant woman cook?”

“What?” he shrugs. “I’ll wash the dishes.”

“Hey Elena,” Sam says a little louder so that she’ll be able to hear him. “Ditch this numbskull and find someone who’ll treat you right.”

“That’s some sound advice Sam!” she says from the kitchen.

“Jeez, you two are always ganging up on me, aren’t you? See you later Sam.”

“See you Nathan.”  Sam frowns as he logs off and shuts his laptop. He’s proud of Nate for becoming a father, of course he is, but he cannot shake this niggling feeling of jealousy. No, he doesn’t hate Nate, far from it, but he feels like he’s lagging way behind. Nathan has done so much with his life already, but what has Sam actually done? And his brother has an adoring wife, a massive house, a baby on the way. Is that what he wants? A family? He didn’t think he did but maybe that’s what his life was missing. He’s had partners, sure, but nothing long term and most of them didn’t even make it past the night. And that suited him, no strings attached, no commitments, no heartbreak. For a while at least. But now he finds it so boring. Every woman is the same and it’s starting to feel almost mechanical. Maybe he does need a woman to love him. He’s hasn’t had that in… _Christ no one has said ‘I love you’ to me in seventeen years._ He almost tears up at the thought. He knows Nathan loves him but they’re not the type of people to verbally express it. And he’s his brother so he has to love him. But no one has chosen to love him in a very long time. _Who wants to love an aging ex-con right?_ He imagines how many swipes left he would get if he put that on his tinder profile, which is another thing he only just discovered recently when Chloe forced him and Sully on it.

His phone dings, bringing him out of his miserable thoughts, and he looks to see he has a text from Sully.

_Victor: Charlie’s got something. Meet at his flat in ten. And bring beer._

_Sam: OK c u ther :-)_

Sam grabs his denim jacket and his keys and locks the door behind him.

 

“So, what have you got?” Sam asks as Sully lets him into Charlie’s flat.

“You took your time,” Charlie says, tapping his watch.

“Hey I was getting the beer,” Sam defends himself. “So come on what did you find? It better be good.” He has known Charlie Cutter for quite a long time but up until now he’s never really _known_ him. He was Nate’s friends really, they were only acquaintances. Charlie was an interesting guy, a brutish thug at first glance but an intelligent history buff once you got to know him. Much like Sam, which is probably why they got along so well, even if they like to tease each other.

“Oh you are going to love this,” he says, opening a worn out, leather-bound book on the dining table in the centre of the room. Sam grabs a beer and joins him and Sully. “So I finally figured out this is Juan Ponce De Leon’s diary.”

“Juan De what now?”

“Juan Ponce De Leon. He was a sixteenth century Spanish explorer. Now, he’s most famous for searching for the fountain of youth right? He looked all over Florida and the Bahamas but found nothing. But look at his journal. This symbol appears a lot on different pages. One big drawing on the first page and then again six times.” Cutter flicks through the journal and points to the strange shape that appears on various different pages. It is a circular shape with decorative markings around the circumference and in the centre there is a picture depicting what looks like a well. “And if you look at the first letter on each page it’s on it spells something interesting,” he continues. He points to the letters as he turns the pages. “B-I-M-I-N-I.”

“What the hells a Bimini?”

“Are you serious? It’s an island in the Bahamas. Everyone knows that.”

“Hang on a minute Sherlock, just take a step outside your mind palace for a second and explain this all to us in English,” say Sully, not quite following Charlie’s trail of thought. Though Sully often doesn't listen until he hears the words 'treasure' and 'millions'. 

“I’m saying my theory is these drawings look like sketches of an object. And object that might open a door or gateway.”

“You think it’s like a key or something?” Sam asks.

“That is generally what keys are for mate. I reckon if we find this,” he points to the circles. “Then it’s got to lead us to something big. Like, oh I don’t know, a certain fountain. On a certain island.”

“That’s all well and good, but how in hell are we going to find that goddamn disk?” Sully interrupts, putting his cigar out and taking a sip of his whiskey.

“Yeah that’s the slight problem.” Charlie mutters. He sighs and scratches his forehead. “I did some digging and something of this sort has recently been taken to the Museo Del Prado in Madrid.”

“Wait, Madrid in Spain?” asks Sam.

“No Madrid in Russia genius,” Cutter replies sharply. “Of course Madrid in bloody Spain!”

“Jeez, someone is on their period today,” Sam mutters, but is ignored by Charlie who is far too excited about this next adventure to listen.

“Problem is I ain’t got a clue how we’re going to get in unnoticed.” Charlie admits. “Any ideas would be welcomed.”

“You know who we need, right?” says Sully.

“She won’t do it,” Cutter states bluntly, shaking his head and taking a massive gulp of his beer. 

“We don’t know until we ask her.”

“Wait, slow down a second. Who are we talking about here?” Sam says. His interest is piqued.

“Y/N Y/L/N,” Sully tells him. He smiles fondly at the mention of her name. “She’s the best goddamn thief I know. She could snatch the cigarette right outta your mouth and you have no idea! Never met anyone else quite like her.”

“Only problem is,” Cutter interjects. “She quit the business a couple of years ago and I doubt she can be persuaded to help us out again. I don't know if I even want her to.”

“But you think she can get the disk unnoticed?” says Sam sceptically. If she’s so good then why is she retired? Unless she’s too old to carry on but then again that never stopped Sully.

“Oh for sure,” says Sully confidently as he turns to Cutter. “Come on Charlie, it’s at least worth a try.”

“Alright fine,” he says rolling his eyes and finally relents. “I’ll go look for her, I think I know where she’ll be.” With that he grabs his coat and leaves his flat in a huff.

“So…,” Sam starts when Charlie is out of the room. “What’s she like, this Y/N? She hot?”

Sully smiles reminiscently. “Oh yeah. If I was thirty years younger.” _Ah ok, so she is young._ That only makes him more confused about why she stopped being a thief. MAybe she got caught. “I’ll tell you, first she’ll steal your heart. And then your wallet.” Sully laughs and lights another cigar.

“She sounds like an interesting woman.”

“That she most definitely is,” he says, like there is more meaning to that. 

“You think this job is going to be worth it?” Sam asks his friend. He decides not the press the topic of Y/N. It seems like it is complicated and they won’t tell him even if he asks.

“If Charlie is right then this could be a huge find. But if he’s wrong we can at least sell that circle thing to a private buyer. Could be worth a fair bit.”

“Think the disk is really the key to the fountain of youth? Doesn’t it seem a little crazy?”

“Could be. I’ve seen crazier shit in my time kid.”

Sam nods, feeling reassured. And here he thought finding the lost pirate city of Libertalia would be the strangest thing he would accomplish. “To small beginnings,” he says, opening a beer bottle and raising it.

Sully meets his glass with Sam’s and they make a clinking sound. “To small beginnings.”


	2. One Last Time

**You**

"Will you marry me?” The words swim around in your head and it’s like time has stopped completely. Alarm bells mentally sound and you are frozen in place, staring into the void.

No. He can’t mean it. It’s too soon. It’s been what?...three months? You’ve only just moved in together and only because your flat is temporrily having repairs done on it.

You breathe heavily and suddenly the room becomes a lot hotter. _It’s too soon. It’s too soon._ _I can’t do this. I need to run._

You then becomes aware that the whole room is gawking at you and he is still on his knees, waiting patiently for an answer. Why did he have to do this in front of all your friends and family? You can’t make a fool out of him in front of everyone they know, it's too cruel.

“Y-yess,” you say, your voice breaking ever so subtly.

So subtle he grins enormously and raises from his knees, giving you the biggest hug of your life. “You scared me for a second there,” he says happily before placing the huge diamond ring on your finger.

You smile sweetly before he rushes off to be congratulated by his parents and closest friends, even though you know they don’t approve of you. You are far too ‘common’ for them. The bar is posh and swanky: mood lighting, expensive furniture, fancy cocktails. The exact opposite of what you are used to. In your youth you spent your days in grotty pubs or night clubs, begging to get served when you didn’t quite have enough money or tried it on with some fake ID. When you think back to those days you can’t imagine what you really have in common with each other. 

You glance over to where he is sat with his friend, Michael. He looks so joyful and it breaks your heart to watch him smiling and laughing. You want to love him, you really do, but there is simply something missing. He is normal and safe and stable, everything you know is good for you. He’s kind to you, has a good job as a lawyer and he is not hard on the eyes. In fact you regularly see other women's reactions when he walks past. He has luscious dark hair and rich brown eyes, something that never fails to drive the women crazy. But you find him…boring. There’s no spark between you. And you hate yourself for feeling that way. But excitement has got you nowhere in the past and if a boring life also means a safe life then that is what you must settle for.

“Congratulations,” your friend, Kayla, says as she practically skips towards you, unscrewing a bottle of champagne and pouring you both a glass.

 _She’s more excited than I am,_ you think. “Thanks.”

“I can’t believe you’re getting married! I hope it works out better for you,” she says sadly. “Oh no don’t feel sorry for me, I’m glad that prick is out of my life for good. I’m just happy for you.” You remember Kayla’s bitter divorce: constant name calling, revenge one-night stands and fighting over custody of the kids, the house, the dog, etc. You can’t help but wonder if it’s all worth it and if people are better off staying alone. “Anyway,” Kayla changes the subject. “Are you excited to be Y/N Williams?”

You haven't even thought about changing your name. “Yeah,” you reply halfheartedly.

“Everything all right? You seem awfully quiet for someone who just got engaged,” Kayla asks, picking up on your melancholia. She always did know when there was something wrong.

“It’s just a headache,” you lie. “In fact, I think I need to lay down, would you mind telling Liam I’ve gone for a nap?”

“Sure,” she replies, still looking concerned but not persisting. “I guess I’ll have to drink all this champagne by myself then?”

You chuckle, knowing she probably will drink the lot by herself. “Knock yourself out.” You go to leave but turn back quickly. “Not literally.”

Kayla laughs and you walk towards the exit. As you near the door you notice someone lingering there. You squint trying to see who it is but you can’t quite make them out as they are too far away. You can see that they are male, bald and wearing a black jacket but that’s about it. He looks vaguely familiar but… _it can’t be…Can it?_ When he sees you, he walks out of the door, as if he wants you to follow him. You do so wearily and look around the exit, unable to see where he went.

“Long time no see,” a familiar man’s voice says, walking up behind you.

You turn around quickly and your faces meet. You were right. It’s him. “Charlie?”

“Hey there Y/N,” he says nervously, rubbing his sweaty palms together.

“What are you doing here? I seem to remember you saying you wanted nothing more to do with me,” you snap, remembering the last time you saw each other. You weren't sure what he could possibly want with you. Why wait this long to reach out? Maybe he needed money. And now you were engaged to a lawyer you had plenty to spare.

“And I seem to remember you saying that suited you just fine.” He sighs and rubs his temple with his hand. “Look I didn’t come here to argue. I came to ask for your help.”

 _Ah. There it is._ “No,” you say bluntly, not even batting an eyelid.  

“But you don’t even know-”

“No. I left that life okay. And now I’ve got a good and safe life for once and I don’t want to ruin it. I’m happy here. So I‘m sorry Charlie but you’ll have to find someone else to do your dirty work for you.”

“Are you?”

“What?”

“Happy?”

“Yes,” you lie, voice so sharp and devoid of emotion, as though you've said it a thousand times. 

“Really? Because you just got engaged and you couldn't look any less miserable.”

You fix your  gaze down at your feet and you shift your weight from one to the other. “It’s just a headache. I _am_ happy.”

“Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?” he says, not angry this time. More pitiful, and that tone makers you even more angry at him. You don't want his pity.

You stay silent, choking on your own words, unable to muster a defence. You are too exhausted to fight this time.

“Look,” he says rummaging through his pocket and handing you a folded up a piece of paper. “If you change your mind, this is my new address and phone number. We leave at seven. I know you probably won’t change your mind but I can at least tell Sully I tried.”

“Sully? He’s still going?” you ask, remembering him fondly. He must be pretty old now so you're amazed he still had the strength in him to carry on with this line of work. But then again you couldn't exactly imagine him settling down into retirement either. 

“You’re joking right? The old goat will still be going when he’s climbing mountains in a zimmer frame.”

“I don’t know, maybe you could get him a mobility scooter,” you joke, earning a laugh from Cutter. Despite the way things ended, you can’t deny you've missed him. And Sully, Nate and Chloe. In truth, you never wanted to leave them behind. But you did what you had to do.

“Look I know we parted on bad terms and I don’t get why you left but I still care about you kiddo. If you’re happy then I won’t pressure you to come with us. Just… do the right thing yeah?” he says and then smiles softly before walking away. “Good luck with the wedding, Y/N,” he shouts back.

“Thank you, Charlie.”

 

After having soaked in the bath for so long you're starting to look like a prune, you step out of the tub, dry yourself and put on some comfortable pajamas. You lay on your shared bed with Liam and stare up at the ceiling, mulling over the events of that evening. You have no idea what to do. Have you missed her old friends? Yes. Have you missed the excitement of treasure hunting? Yes. Are you utterly bored with your life at the moment? Yes. Looking at it that way it seems obvious to go back, and when you were younger you would have done it in a heartbeat. But there comes a time when a dangerous and illegal lifestyle catches up with you. You have everything you could ever want now. _Why is that not enough for me?_   you chastise yourself. _Why am I never happy with what I’ve got? Or who I’ve got? Why am I so self-destructive?_  You think of the long list of ex-boyfriends, some of whom were perfectly decent men, but you had ditched them when things were getting too serious. But you cannot bear to have another person compromise your freedom. It means everything to you. Do you want stability or independence? Right now, you are unsure whether you can ever have both. 

It’s not long before Liam returns, clearly having had a skinful as he practically falls into the bed, next to where you are sleeping. You are woken up by the weight of him on top of you as you try to shove him off.

“Hey,” he says. “Feeling better?” You detect a hint of annoyance in his voice. He is rarely passive aggressive so this immediately has you on edge. 

“Yeah, thanks.”

He doesn’t say anything for a while so you assume that he has gone to sleep but just as you are about to close your eyes he speaks again. “So did you really have a headache then?” he asks, accusingly.

“What kind of a question is that? Of course I did,” you reply, much too quickly and defensively.

He sits up now and faces you. “Really? Because we just got engaged and you’ve barely said two words to me tonight,” he says, rage rising in his voice. “It’s supposed to be the happiest night of our lives and it’s like you couldn’t care less.”

“I told you, I had-”

“Yeah you had a headache. You have a lot of those when we have to do stuff together. Like when I have a party at work, or dinner with my parents, or double date with Michael and Jane.”

“Alright fine.” You sit up too now. Your anxiety is rising and now you have to try desperately to regulate your breathing. “I didn’t want to spend time with your family okay. I know how much your mother hates me and she thinks you can do better. And, I don’t know, maybe you can.”

“No, I saw you when I asked you. You hesitated. I saw the panic in your eyes. Did you only say yes because…what? You felt sorry for me? Because everyone was watching?”

“No! I want to be with you, I’m just not sure it’s the right time to get married. We’ve only been together for three months. Maybe we should just wait a bit? See how things go?”

He sighs and rolls onto his side, facing away from you. He turns off the lamp on the bedside table and you are in a suffocating silence for a few moments. “I know how I feel about you. I suggest you think about how you feel about me.”

 

Later that night, you start to feel a chill and go to your wardrobe to find your favourite jumper. When you pull it from the top shelf, a small wooden box falls on your head. “Ouch,” you squeal. You turn back to Liam but the sound didn’t seem to have woken him up. You take the box into the kitchen and open the padlock. Inside there is an array of paraphernalia from your old life. Artefacts from lost cities, ancient documents written in extinct languages that only you could read, your set lockpicks, photos of you and your old friends.

You rummage through the archaic coins and bits of broken pottery, observing each one and recalling the fond memories of how you acquired them. You look at a photograph; you, Sully, Nate and Charlie are sat on a wall in Delphi, outside the Temple of Apollo. You turn it over and read the message on the back, which is in Nathan’s handwriting: _We didn’t get the treasure but we sure had fun trying!_ You smile as you recall his schoolboy sense of humour. Next, you choose another photo and this time it’s you and Chloe in front of the Egyptian pyramids. You were close to Chloe, being the only other woman on their team and she had often felt like an older sister.

You put down the photo and rest your head in your hands. You've kept this box locked away for so long, trying to forget about that life, trying convince yourself it’s not what you wanted anymore. But looking at the remnants of your past now you could hardly deny it.

Charlie had told you to do the right thing but maybe the right thing to do wasn’t what you had initially thought. For whatever reason, Liam loves you and if you can never return that love then surely it is cruel to stay with him. You have unknowingly used him and played with his emotions, going into something you knew you didn’t really want, but rather felt like you  _should_ want. You've always been told marriage and children was the best that your life could amount to but you don't feel like you fit that life at all. Perhaps you truly are meant to be a thief and nothing more.

But then maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as last time. Once the jobs is done you’ll know what you really want. But can you forget about the pain that you went through last time? Would it be different this time around? Should you leave the box closed and hidden away or should you open it and let everything out?

 _Shit, I still don’t know_ , you think as you puts the box safely away and return to bed. _Everything makes sense when you sleep on it, right?_

 

**Sam**

“Victor, seriously why do you need so many bags?” Sam complains as he lifts Sully's heavy suitcases into the boot of their rented car. “What you got in here? A dead body? A whole brewery? Your collection of Hawaiian shirts?”

“No just some products. Got to keep the ol’ moustache in good condition you know. The ladies love it.” He's not sure if Sullivan is being serious but in a way it wouldn't surprise him if he was.

“What? No way? Victor Sullivan uses beauty products?” Sam teases.

“Laugh all you want kid, but it works. And besides, you’re not telling my you don’t use anything on those locks of yours? It can't naturally be that soft and bouncy,”

“Aw Victor, did you just compliment me?”

“Well not exa-”

“Jesus Christ, you two, could this get any more homoerotic?” Cutter interrupts, as he frequently checks his watch. Sam knows he’s waiting for Y/N to show up, even if it’s incredibly unlikely. He can’t help but he can’t help but feel sorry for him as he hopes for it. But they can’t wait for her forever.

“I mean yeah. We could be naked,” Sam jokes, winking at Sully, whom in return rolls his eyes and lights another cigar.

“Don’t put that thought in my head mate,” Charlie sighs as he checks his watch again, realising it is now quarter past seven and they need to leave urgently for Spain.

“I’m sorry, Charlie,” Sully says, patting him on the back. “I really thought she’d come.”

“Yeah well, let’s get moving,” he says as he closes the boot and the three men are about to enter the vehicle.

“Wait!” they hear a woman’s voice cry, prompting them to turn to the source of the noise. A woman with Y/H/C hair, who Sam can only assume is Y/N, is running towards them, dragging her suitcase behind her. “Shit. Sorry, it took me ages to find this place,” she says, out of breath.

“I didn’t think you were coming,” Charlie says to her, and Sam can see a smile creeping through. He wonders what the deal is with these two but it’s a question for another time.

“Well, one last time eh?” she says, reopening the boot and squeezing her case in with theirs. “Oh and,” she walks to the front of the car and opens the door on the left. “I call shotgun.”


	3. The Plan

**Sam**

Y/N isn’t exactly what he was expecting. In his mind he had seen her as a rough and ready type, much like himself, but instead he is faced with a woman who could easily be a glamour model. She is beautiful and by the way she carries herself he can tell that she is as confident as she is intelligent. Everything about her suggests that she is his kind of woman. 

“This is Sam. Drake,” Sully introduces and Sam suddenly realises he’s been staring at her, practically drooling, this whole time. Snapping out of it, he steps forward and offers her his hand to shake.

She ignores it, instead glaring at him so sternly she’s practically burning a hole in his skin. _Has she noticed me checking her out?_ “Drake?” she asks in a southern English accent, cocking her head to one side. After probing Sully for a bit more information on her, he discovered that she is of Hispanic decent, he's not sure exactly where, and has lived in the UK for at least half of her life. 

“Nate’s older brother,” says Sully.

“Since when did Nate have an older brother?”

“Well it’s uh…long story. In short, I was stuck in a Panamanian jail for thirteen years,” Sam answers briefly, not wanting to talk about the worst thirteen years of his life with a total stranger. He doesn't particularly like talking about it with anyone, not even Nate. It's a part of his life best forgotten. If only he _could_ forget. 

“And he never mentioned you?”

He shrugs awkwardly, not knowing how to really respond. He does think it’s strange that Nathan never mentioned him to anyone, especially his wife. Maybe it was too painful for Nate to talk about but he can’t help but wonder if he was embarrassed by him or something. He could hardly blame him if he was.

“Not being funny or anything but we do have a plane to catch,” Charlie says, tapping his watch. "Can we do the meet and greet later?"

The others nod an get into the car. Sam takes the driver’s wheel and Y/N sits in the front next to him. He puts in his favourite Alestorm CD, receiving a groan from Sully and Charlie as the first song plays.

“Oh not this pirate shite again,” Charlie complains from the back seat, shoving his fingers in his ears.

“Hey they’re good okay,” Sam defends as he starts to sing along, drifting into a world of his own.

“Do you think maybe someone else should drive?” Y/N asks Sam after a few minutes. He looks over his shoulder at her to see her she is looking at him with unease.

“No. Why? Have a problem with my driving?” he asks, raising his eyebrows at her.

“Umm yes, because you’re driving on the wrong side of the road.”

“What? No I’m no- OH SHIT!” Sam quickly swerves the car as he is about to hit another one coming in the opposite direction. “Well that was close.” He laughs but no one else in the car is in the mood to join him, having seen their lives flash before them. “Oh come guys relax. Jeez where’s your sense of humour?”

“This is going to be one helluva long journey,” says Sully, lighting his cigar and winding down his window. Sam hears him mutter something about how no one has wind down windows anymore but he is too busy listening to his music to care.

After the long car journey that only Sam seemed to enjoyed, they finally arrive to where Sully has kept the plane. They retrieve the bags from the boot as Charlie and Y/N walk ahead.

“Don’t go there,” Sully says, closing the boot and picking up the rest of his bags. He raises his eyebrows at him, giving a look of 'I know the mistake you're about to make'. 

“Don’t go where?” Sam asks, still staring at her and only half listening to him. He can't help himself. 

“Don’t get smart with me kid, I can see you checking out her ass.”

Sam turns back to him and shrugs innocently. Okay he _had_ been checking out her ass but he'd been subtle about it. At least he thought he had. Now he thinks about it, he'd probably not been subtle at all.

“Look I’m just saying don’t go there. It'll only end in heartache for one or both of you. Take it as a warning.”

“Sir yes sir.” Sam mockingly salutes him and an exasperated Sully leads the way.

 

**You**

“So I meant to ask,” You say, sitting next to Charlie at the back of Sully’s plane. Sam sits at the front with Sully, backseat driving even on a plane, and Victor looks as though he wants to throttle the man. She doesn't exactly blame him. “How did you know where you know find me?

“I went to your place and your neighbour told where you were. I think she just wanted to me to stop banging on the door so loudly.”

“Wait how do you know where I live?” You ask, confused. Had he known where you were this whole time? How did he even know?

“I’ve tried to keep tabs on you. I heard from a mate you'd moved back to London and I wanted to make sure you were safe. That you hadn't got involved with anything dodgy again.”

You know what he means but you decide to brush the comment off. “Oh so like a stalker?” you joke instead, knowing that Charlie will find it funny too. You hate to admit it but you are already happy to be back in the game. With Charlie and Sully, you have never had to pretend to be someone you're not or feel insecure about yourself. It feels like home.

“Shut up. Whatever happened between us…I still care about you kiddo.” He smiles at you and you roll your eyes at the endearment that Charlie does on purpose as he knows it irritates the hell out of you. You are surprised how easy it is to get along with him again after so long. With him it’s just like slipping on an old pair of shoes. “You sure this is where you want to be?” he asks, concerned and with a half-smile. For as long as you've known him he has always wanted nothing but for you to be happy. And that is why you had to leave him.

“No. I’m not sure of anything. But I’m here now. That’s what matters.”

 

“Okay so, run the plan by me,” you say as you flick through the journal Charlie had shown you. You don't even want to know who he screwed over to get his hands on this. Looking at it you're not exactly sure what they want you to do but there must be a good reason as to why they’ve dragged you all the way to Madrid. Or at least there had better be. Spain is the last place you wanted to be again. The four of you are standing around the small dining table in the hotel room the men are sharing. You are more than thankful to have your own room. It's not the best quality hotel you've ever stayed in, there's damp in the walls and the carpet is sticky, but it'll do for the night.

Charlie points to the circular symbol on the corner of the page you are on. “This symbol has appeared in the form of a metal disk in the Museo Del Prado. It was taken from Ponce De Leon’s grave, along with his journal, in Puerto Rico so it has to be important or why would he be buried with it?” he explains.

“Wait? Juan Ponce De Leon? The fountain of youth guy?” _What the hell is he getting himself into?_

“The very same.”

“So you’re going after the fountain of youth? What are you going to do with it? Bottle the water and flog it on the black market?” You ask, unsure if you should even be looking for this. Revealing the secret to eternal youth can't be a good thing. Can people not be satisfied with anti-aging creams?

“Well there’s supposed to be treasure hidden with it. It says so in the journal look.”

"And where did you get this journal exactly?" 

"I dunno, some Spanish guy."

“Wow, real specific," you take a deep breath "I don’t know Charlie. It sounds risky.” Now you're starting to think you should have asked about the job before you agreed to come, instead of taking his word for it. This sounds reckless, even for you.

“We’ve done more with less."

You can’t deny that is true, though you usually ended up leaving with less than you hoped after getting shot at repeatedly. But it was always fun, you can say that at least. “Ah sod it,” you say. “What do you need me to do? I’m guessing get the symbol thingy from the museum unseen?”

“You guessed right kid,” Sully replies. “No one else can do it as smoothly as you.”

You blush slightly at the compliment. Your previous expeditions had gone well, without a hitch. Well, most of them. “And then what?”

“Everything point towards the fountain being in Bimini. It’s in-”

“In the Bahamas, I know.”

“Finally, someone with some brain cells.” Charlie glances at Sam who looks offended, throwing his arms up and shaking his head.

“It was the last place Ponce De Leon looked for the fountain but he couldn’t have found it,” you say as you start to pace the floor. “Isn't it right that many historians say he wanted to find the fountain to restore his…how shall we say…sexual vigour?”

“Well now we know why Sully wants to find it,” Sam says as he laughs hysterically at his own joke. You snicker, trying to hide your smile but Sam sees your reaction and your eyes meet for a moment. You look away immediately.

“Hey watch it kid,” Sully warns, pointing his cigar at Sam.  

“But still, the last few pages of the diary are ripped out so any information about the location is gone. How do we know where in Bimini it actually is?” you ask and all three men are silent. “Great. Did anyone else just see some wild geese in here, or is it just me?”

“She kinda has a point,” Sam agrees.

“Now is a bit late to be voicing your concerns Sam,” says Charlie as he folds his arms in front of his chest.

“I’m just saying.”

“Well okay I was hoping it would make more sense when we got there but at the very least we can sell the disk to an independent.”

“You mean a dodgy buyer,” you interrupt.

“You really have been out of this business for some time. None of what we do is legal sweetheart. You sure you’re up to it?” Sam says. This really irritates you. His tone is just so patronising and you swear only a second ago he was agreeing with your point. The way he calls you ‘sweetheart’ makes you nauseous. You've met his type before. The joker who thinks he’s basically a god. And you've seen him checking you out on the way here when he thought you weren't looking, so it is becoming abundantly clear what he wants from you. And there was no way he was getting it.

“Fine. All right,” you relent. “We should probably scout out the museum beforehand. Check for a back entrance, security cameras, guards.”

“Good idea. But it’ll have to wait until tomorrow, it’s the opening of the exhibition tonight,” Charlie informs.

“Pfft, amateurs,” you say, smirking at them while they gaze at you blankly. “That’s our way in.”

“But it’s invite only. They'll never just let us waltz in the front door.”

“I can sort that out to. Come on, this is much easier than breaking in. A museum is bound to have alarms and guards.”

“This could work. We’ve done it before,” Sam says, agreeing with you again. _Can this guy make his mind up?_

“Yeah and look how that worked out,” Sully replies. You're not sure what he’s referencing but you can imagine exactly how it ended. If Sam was anything like his brother then the word ‘stealth’ was not in his vocabulary.

“We got the cross didn’t we?”

“While being chased by hundreds of guards.”

“Yeah well a museum isn’t going to have as many guards as the Rossi estate and they won't be carrying guns.”

“And I won’t be seen,” you assure them. Granted, you may be overselling your talent a little but Sam has put your back up and you feels like you have something to prove now. You hate how you still care about men’s opinions of you, after all these years of trying not to let them get to you.

“You really think you can do that? In a museum full of people. Lock picking is hard enough-”

“How about instead of treating me like a child you go and find a tux to wear?  We have a party to go to.” _Seriously, fuck this guy._

“Told you she was good,” you hear Sully say to Sam as you leave the room. You exit the hotel, grab your purse and head into the city to search for something suitable to wear.

 

**Sam**

“So uh,” Sam approaches Sully who is sat at the bar of the hotel. Charlie had gone out to get their suits for them, claiming they both ‘have horrible taste in fashion’, and there was no way he’d be seen dead with them in a Hawaiian shirt or denim jacket. Having given him their sizes, they now wait for Charlie and Y/N to come back and have elected to take full advantage of the variety of cocktails the hotel has to offer. Now that he and Sully are alone, he braves the question he’s been wanting to ask for a while. “What’s the deal with Y/N and Cutter? How do they know each other?” Sam pulls up the stool next to him and orders a martini while he awaits the answer.

Sully takes a large sip of his drink and then sets it back down on the coaster. “They met when she was young and living on the streets, robbing anything she could to sell. He was impressed with her skills and took her on as a protegee. Similar to Nate and myself. Then one day she announces she’s leaving and no one can follow her. Ever. Doesn’t give any reason why and just ups and leaves. Charlie was pissed off, naturally.”

He would never have guessed that she grew up on the streets but he can relate to that, having scraped by trying to provide for Nathan and himself, often putting his needs before his own. If the two of them were hungry and there was only enough food for one, he would give it to Nathan without a second thought. “You think she was in trouble?” he asks.

“Could have been,” Sully replies, shrugging. “But if she was we could have helped her. I wouldn’t ask her about it if I were you, she’d probably bite your arm off. And don’t mention it to Charlie either. Sore topic for both of ‘em. I think they're both just avoiding the subject.”

“Sure thing.”

That evening, Sam looks at himself in the mirror. He is wearing a simple black tuxedo and a white shirt that is far too tight for him. _Damn, you’re so old_ , he says out loud to himself as he pokes at the wrinkles around the corners his eyes. Being in prison for as long as he was, he never really saw himself age. There weren’t a lot of mirrors around as people in the past had smashed them and used the glass as a weapon so when he saw himself, properly saw himself, for the first time when Rafe ‘rescued’ him, he was shocked to say the least. Thirteen years of his life, gone. Just like that. Maybe finding the fountain of youth could be a good thing for him. It could give him back some of the years that were robbed for him. Give him a chance to start again. Reinvent himself. Though reinvent himself as what, he wasn’t sure.

He leaves his room and knocks on the door next to his. Y/N opens the door. “Hey,” he says nervously. _Why the hell am I nervous?_ he thinks.

“Can I help you?” she says coldly. He definitely gets the impression she doesn’t like him much. But that hardly matters, they won’t be working together for very long. He doesn't know what he's done, and ordinarily he wouldn't care, but he sort of wishes she would at least acknowledge him in some way. She's hardly said two words to him on the way here and he doesn't know why but it's really starting to bug him.

“Yeah, I uh…need help and Charlie and Sully are already downstairs.”

“What do you need?”

“I ah…don’t know how to tie a necktie. Could you do it for me? Please?”

She stares at him, wide eyes. “Seriously? What is this, your first day of school?”

“Yeah well we didn’t have a uniform at school and I didn’t exactly attend many soirees in prison, so you’ll have to forgive my lack of expertise in this particular area.”

She rolls her eyes and loudly sighs but eventually relents, opening the door further as a gesture for him to come inside. He steps in and hands her the tie. His eyes nearly pop out of his head when he sees her fully, standing in the centre of the room and illuminated by the sunset creeping through the windows. She is wearing a fitted black dress which clings to her curves and shows a generous amount of cleavage. Her hair is styled into a bun and her make up done to absolute perfection. He ever trusts women who can do winged eyeliner, it must be witchcraft or something. He looks her up and down, knowing he is probably being too obvious but he cannot help himself. _She is gorgeous_. She steps closer to him and lifts up his collar, wrapping the tie around his neck and working on tying it. He starts to breath heavily now that her body is so close to his and his eyes rest on her breasts. He feels himself harden and starts to fret that she may see it and feel creeped out by him. _Shit shit shit, think of something that turns me off. Nadine Ross. Think of Nadine Ross._

“Eyes up here,” she says, having noticed him gazing at her like she is a goddess, but she doesn’t seem too bothered by it. Thankfully she hasn’t noticed anything else. She steps back when she is done and grabs her clutch bag from the bed. “Come on. They’re waiting.”


	4. Mr & Mrs Rodriguez

**You**

The grand entrance to the museum is already littered with important guests as the four of you arrive that evening. You all exit the rented car and walk towards the gathering crowd. “I’ll go get us some invitations,” you say as you walk into the centre of the crowd and begin to mingle casually, not drawing too much attention to yourself. You walk past a finely dressed man and notice that two cards are sticking out of his back pocket and you quickly work out how you can get them without being seen by anyone. You ‘accidentally’ bump into him, apologising profusely and walk back to where the three men are waiting for you.

“Got 'em,” you say, examining the invitations you have procured. You only managed two, and going back again would look suspicious, so they’ll have to settle for this.

“What the hell? I was watching you the whole time and I didn’t see you do anything,” Sam says, dumbfounded. Both he and Sully are lighting up before going in. The pair of them smoke like chimneys, it's a wonder they can still breath. 

“That’s why I’m getting the artefact, not you,” you reply harshly. Perhaps too harshly. 

He shrugs and takes a final drag of his cigarette before dropping it on the ground and stepping on it to put it out.

“I managed to get two. Husband and wife, I guess. Mr and Mrs Rodriguez. So which one of you is coming with me?”

The three men look at each other. “It’ll have to be Sam,” Charlie says eventually.

“What? Why me?” he responds defensively. You can tell he looks grossly uncomfortable in the suit, complaining the whole journey here that the trousers are 'crushing the crown jewels'. An image you really don't want to think about. You doubt there's much to crush anyway. 

“Sully is too old to believably be her husband and I can’t speak very good Spanish. It has to be Sam,” says Charlie. 

“I don’t know, Victor sure is a fox,” Sam jokes, winking at Sully. Charlie glares at him while Sully shakes his head, more than used to Sam’s strange sense of humour by now. He is so much alike his brother. “Alright fine. I’ll be Mr Rodriguez for the night,” he finally agrees, taking his invitation from your hand. 

“Whatever. Let’s get this over with." You grab him by the sleeve and pull him with you to the entrance. "Come on then, _dear husband_.”

You and Sam show your invitations to the bouncer on the door and soon you are inside, blending into the crowd of respectable historians and archaeologists. You are not sure how well you blend but no eyes are on you at present, that you can tell, which is a good sign. You proceed further into the exhibition.

“Do you see it?” Sam asks, leaning in so no one can hear him. Your skin tickles as you feel his warm breath on the nape of your neck.

“Not yet. That sign points towards sixteenth century so it has to be there. With a bit of luck, it’s not in an open space with lots of people so I can steal it unnoticed.” You glance over to Sam who, instead of listening to you, is checking out one of the museum guides. She’s a tall slender woman, with sun kissed skin and luscious black locks. You roll your eyes, smacking Sam in the arm to get his attention back to you. “Seriously? Do I need to put you on a leash?”

“Buy me a drink first,” Sam replies, winking again. This time you roll your eyes even harder. The man is so infuriating. He is _relentless_. On the one hand, his comments are irritating but a few times you have had to try hard to suppress a smile. But you would never admit that to him. He would never let it go. Ever.

“So uh, Y/N, where you from? I was born in Boston,” Sam says, not really paying much attention to the task at hand. He looks like he wants to be anywhere else. And to be honest so do you.

“Silence is okay Sam. You don’t have to fill it,” you snap, trying to concentrate. You feel bad for snapping but you don’t have time for his jabbering. Right now you need to find the artefact. He can ask pointless questions later.

“Okay,” he says, putting his hands up in mock defence. “Pardon me for breathing.”

The two of you look around the exhibition thoroughly, pretending to be vividly interested in the artefacts on display when in truth you are only interested in one. One that seems to be very good at playing hide and seek. At one point in the evening a woman comes up to you, proclaiming she is a big fan of Mr and Mrs Rodriguez’s work, the _real_ Mr and Mrs Rodriguez, and that the bouncer had pointed her in your direction. You are about to excuse you both when Sam starts wittering on and on about pirates for some reason. The woman asks him to sign her note book and the look on his face is like he’s a rock star signing a groupie's breasts. God you hope she doesn't ask him to do that. She thanks him copiously and finally leaves them to it. “Still got it,” Sam says, smoothing his hair back like he's Danny Zuko.

“Calm down Casanova, she thinks you’re someone else. You'd think such a big fan would know what Mr Rodriguez actually looks like,” you say as you look around the exhibition one last time.  “It’s not here,” you finally sigh in defeat. After all this and you have fallen at the first hurdle.

“Let’s just keep looking,” Sam says though you can tell by his voice that his optimism is also fading.

“Sam we’ve searched everywhere. It’s not here.” You go to a quiet spot in the room, followed by Sam, and tune into you earpiece to make contact with Charlie and Sully. “Charlie it’s not here,” you say.

“What? Are you sure? It should be there!” Charlie replies, sounding agitated and upset. You're surprised, he doesn't normally get like this over jobs.

“Pretty sure.”

“Bollocks,” he curses. There is a brief pause. “The website definitely said it should be there!”

“Hang on. Gimme a second,” says Sam as he saunters over to one of the guides and starts to chat with them. “Hola. Discúlpe un momento,” you hear him say as he proceeds to ask the man about the exhibition. He sounds hilarious speaking Spanish in an American accent. But he is pretty proficient in the language, much to your surprise. 

“What’s he doing?” asks Charlie over the earpiece.

“I dunno, he’s talking to one of the museum guides.” You watch  him as he charms the pants off of the man, who is currently in stitches at one of Sam’s ‘jokes’. You have no idea how he does it. But if it works then who cares. He makes his way back over to you. “And?” 

“Okay so the disk has been sold to an antiques collector. Just yesterday,” he informs you.

“How the hell did you get him to give you the information?”

“Oh, just with my incredible personality and devilish good looks. I think we’re going to be good friends, he already said I could stay in his villa in Barcelona. Fancy a holiday after this?”

“You’re actually insane.”

“I prefer lovable and dashing rogue.”

You laugh at him as he looks rather impressed with himself. He is so full of himself, it's almost unbelievable. "Oh wait, you're actually serious?" 

“Hey kids, can you focus for one second and tell us where to find this collector?” Sully interrupts, making them remember where they are.

“Yeah, we’ll come back to the car,” says Sam and you both walk towards the exit of the museum. Suddenly you feel Sam take your hand in his. “Just trying to make it look believable,’ he mutters as you stroll out and walk to where Sully has parked the car. 

“So?” he says as you and Sam step into the back of the car and put on your seat belts.

“I know it was sold to a company called Romero Antiques but I don’t know where it is now," Sam tells the three of you. “You know ‘em?” he asks Sully as the man looks deep in thought. The look on his face indicates nothing good.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of these guys before. Ruthless. And usually get paid by drug dealers or arms traders who need the extra cash. Which means they almost always have a whole army at their disposal. Sure you wanna mess with these guys Charlie? It won’t be easy.”

“When has it ever been easy Sully?” Charlie replies. "We have the journal remember. We've got a massive head start on these guys."

“Okay, your call. I can give you the address, providing they haven't moved. It’s about an hours drive from here.”

“Then let’s go.”

 

**Sam**

After looking around the huge premises for some time, they finally discover a loose plank in the fence and are able to climb through. The ‘Romero’ estate is the biggest mansion Sam has ever set his eyes upon. He could easily see himself living here. But how they are going to find one small disk in this place is beyond him.

“I think it’s best we split up,” Charlie says. “Sam and Y/N take the east, I’ll take the west. Sully, you wait in the car in case we need to make a quick getaway.”

“Are you going to be okay on your own?” asks Y/N, voice full of concern.

“I’ll be fine. And besides, someone needs to babysit Sam.”

“Hey!” he says. “I am right here you know.” He swears he hears Y/N say ‘unfortunately’. What is it with her? To his knowledge he's not actually done anything to upset her.

“Wait, you’re not leaving me alone with him again are you?” she says to Charlie, ignoring him again.

“Again. I am right here. You know physically here. I can hear every word you are saying.”

“I’m just joking, Y/N,” Charlie says. “He’s not that bad. If you give him a chance you might find you actually like him.” He slaps Sam on the back affectionately and walks towards his side of the house. Sully returns to the car and promises to keep a lookout and inform them of any danger he sees coming their way.

Now alone, Sam and Y/N scout the outside of the house, noting all lights are off so whoever lives here is either out or asleep. Hopefully the former.

“Y/N,” Sam says, pointing up at a window. “Window’s open a little. Think we can reach it?”

“Yeah, just give me a leg up,” she orders as she removes her heels and steps on Sam’s bent knee. He then cups his hands together and hoists her up so she can grip onto the ledge as she stands on his shoulders. 

“Got a great view from down here,” Sam calls from below. 

As she climbs up she puts her foot on his face, pushing herself up off him. “Oops. My leg slipped,” she deadpans and wiggles her way up, finally getting a footing solid enough to stand.

“See anything up there I can climb on?” he asks. He waits for a moment while she looks around.

“Er no. I’ll have to pull you up.”

“Really? I’m not light.”

“And I’m stronger than I look so shut up and grab my hand.” He obliges and she does manage to pull him up, as they both sneak through the window. “We need to be really quiet, we don’t know-”

Cutting her off, Sam trips over a pile of books and falls onto a desk, smashing a rather expensive looking vase. The sound ricochets throughout the room, still echoing seconds later. He smiles at her sheepishly. “Sorry.”

“Are you an actual child?”

He shrugs and they press on, silently searching the rooms of the east side of the house. The mansion is filled with historical objects: from maps, to coins, to statues, to suits of armour. Finding the disk in all of this is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. If that’s even possible.

“Hey, there’s some cool stuff in here. Look,” Sam says and Y/N turns around to see him wearing a Roman helmet rather proudly. She sighs in annoyance. “Come on, spitting image of Caesar, right?”

“You certainly have the nose for it,” she whispers under her breath but just loud enough for him to hear.

“You know, that really hurts my feelings,” he puts his hand to his heart as he feigns offence.

“It was meant to,” she replies bluntly. “Now can you please stop dicking around and look for the disk. And be quiet!”

Though Sam doesn’t let Y/N’s harsh comments get to him, every time she says something like that he feels the need to seek her approval. He typically couldn’t care less if someone doesn’t like him but she is different and he can't for the life of him figure out why. But then he remembers Sully’s warning and telling him she’s a ‘heartbreaker’ so perhaps it’s for the best they stay at arm’s length of each other. Yet he feels drawn to her in a way he can't describe.

Having found nothing in the rooms on the second floor, they make their way down the extravagant spiral staircase and into a kitchen area. The decor is all very modern and, by the looks of it, the person who owns this house is a millionaire, at the very least. It reminds him of his time with Rafe after he left prison. Though compared to Panama anywhere with a flushing toilet was considered luxurious to him. Suddenly, they hear a noise from upstairs, footsteps getting closer and closer. They must be coming from the third floor.

Sam feels the force of Y/N pulling him into one of the nearby rooms and closing the door behind her. She kneels down and peers through the keyhole. Sam glances around the room that appears to be a study. He heads over to the desk and starts to search the draws. There is not much, papers mostly, but then he sees it. Beaming up at him.

“Y/N,” he whispers.

“What?” she replies, not really listening to him and still looking through the keyhole.

“I found it,” he says ,picking up the object they have been searching for.

Now she looks away and her eyes widen as she sees the disk before her. “The guy is still out there. We’ll have to go through the window."

He sighs, hoping he would have at least got some gratitude for finding it. They jump out of the window and land right in a prickly rose bush. Sam is alright since he is wearing his suit jacket but he notices Y/N has cut her leg and blood is gently oozing out the narrow wound. He is about to ask her is she is alright but she strides away and starts to contact Charlie through the earpiece. “Hey we got it. Meet you back at the car.”

“So, you got it?” says Sully as they all get back inside the car and Y/N shows them the artefact. It is even more mesmerising than the drawing in Juan Ponce De Leon’s journal.

“Yeah,” she says as she gazes at it in awe. “It’s beautiful.”

Sam looks back in the direction of the house to see that lights are switching on and someone is rushing out of the front door. “That’s great and all but perhaps it’s time to leave?” he warns pointing to the men running towards them with guns and several guard dogs.

“Drive!”

 

**You**

“Well I call that mission a success, if a little unorthodox,” Cutter says as he places the artefact on the table. "I'm just glad I didn't run into those guard dogs."

"So, what exactly are we supposed to do with this now? We still don't know where we're meant to go once we get to Bimini," asks Sam, picking it up and observing it, front to back. It is an interesting object but as far as you can see, quite useless.  

"We um, well... Fuck I don't know. Bimini isn't that big." Cutter is twiddling his thumbs, something you know he only does when he is nervous.

"You want us to scour the whole goddamn island in search of a mythical fountain? That's gonna take a helluva long time," Sully replies, irritation rising. "Charlie, just sell the disk and be done with it."

"But we've got this far Sully, we can't give up now!" 

"Why is it so important to you? At least we're not leaving with nothing this time," Sam agrees, putting down the disk and removing his jacket. 

"It just is okay."

While the men are arguing, you take the disk and examine it properly, paying close attention to every minor detail. You have learnt from you extensive time in the treasure hunting business that artefacts are not always what they seem and sometimes thinking outside the box is what's required. There must be something you are missing, you think to yourself as you stare at the carvings in the gold. You run your index finger around the circumference and it is stopped by a ridge, that could easily go undetected without an eagle eye. You slide it back to reveal an opening and see that it is in fact hollow and there is something tucked inside. "Guys," you say, trying to get their attention but they are still engrossed in their argument. "Guys," you say again but to no avail. _For fuck sake_. "Shut up for one fucking minute!" you yell at the top of you lungs and finally they listen, turning around and all eyes are finally on you. You flip the disk over and a folded piece of worn paper falls out onto the table. The men glare at it in amazement. You take the paper and open it up, spreading it across the table. A map is what meets you. A map of Bimini with three large Xs marked on it. It's almost too cliche to be true. "I think we've found our locations." 

"How did you do that?" questions Sam and he actually sounds impressed. It pains you to say it, but tonight he has proven himself quite capable. If resembling a bull in a china shop at times. 

You shrug and pass the map to them to look at. "Luck I guess. Whatever is there is definitely worth checking out right? He wouldn't go throw such lengths to hide a map if there was nothing to be discovered."

"What would we do without you kiddo?" Charlie says happily, patting you on the back, and he starts to study Ponce De Leon's map. You are also unsure why this expedition means as much to him as it does but whatever the reason you are happy to help now. He has done more than enough for you over the years and you guess you have some making up to do. 

After a while of preparation for tomorrow, Charlie and Sam go to the mini fridge and pull out some beers while Sully pulls you aside for a moment. “Looks like we’re off to Bimini in the morning but I can drop you back home if you want. You’ve done what we asked you to do. There’s no reason to stay if you don’t want to. Charlie’ll understand.”

You pause for a moment. You can no longer lie to yourself and pretend that you have not missed this life. Missed your friends. And you're definitely not ready to go back to Liam and your alternate life. Not yet. “Actually. I think I’ll come with you. If that’s alright.”

“Course it is kid, we're happy to have ya. We were gonna play some poker now. Fancy a game?”

“Uh, thanks but I think I’ll just get an early night. See you tomorrow.” You go next door to your own room, remove your clothes, makeup and earrings, put on your nightgown and crawl into bed. You are exhausted after tonight and you didn’t even do that much. When you are comfy in bed you wearily reach for your phone.

_10 missed calls._

_26 new messages._

_Oh shit_ , you think as you open your messages from him, dreading what is going to be there waiting for you.

_[Liam 7:55am] Seriously? You’re leaving me in a letter? You couldn’t even tell me to my face? You’re such a fucking coward._

_[Liam 9:05am] You know what fuck you. You never even had any intention of marrying me did you? You were what? Going to marry me for my money and bottled it? Is there another guy? Should have known you would cheat on me whore. My family was right about you, you are a selfish bitch._

_[Liam 10:28am] What the hell do you even mean you need to ‘figure out what matters to you’? Do I not matter? Have I ever even mattered?_

_[Liam 10:41am] I could do better than you anyway. You're worthless._

_[Liam 10:50am] Yeah, you’re hot but underneath it all you’re just a gold-digging heartless bitch who uses people. I hope you rot in hell._

_[Liam 5:58pm] Are you going to actually bother to reply?_

You knew you would have hurt him deeply by leaving but did you really deserve this abuse? You suspect he was drunk when he wrote these but still. He was usually calm when sober but could be extremely angry and argumentative when drunk, sometimes even violent. In the letter you left him you had explained how you weren't sure if you were right for each other and that you need some space to think before you commit to anything. You had tried to be as nice about it as you could but clearly he was not taking it as well as you had hoped. Were you really so heartless?  Are you not sparing him from any heartache later on? Or perhaps he is right. Perhaps you are sparing only yourself. You tried to convince yourself that being with him was the right thing to do when all you were really doing was getting yourself into yet another difficult situation and giving a man false hope. Maybe he was right. Maybe you were selfish. Maybe you do deserve to be on your own for the rest of your life.

You put the phone down, unable to stomach anymore, and go to the mini bar, emptying it of its alcohol supply.


	5. Need a light?

**Sam**

“Okay, you are definitely cheating,” says Charlie in defeat as he throws down his cards. “How do you manage to win every round? You’ve got to be doing _something_.”

“You guys just really need to work on your poker faces,” Sam says smugly as he counts his winnings, smiling widely to annoy the two men. He played cards often during his stint in prison to pass the time and so he has had a lot of time to practise. He also did a lot of reading while he was there, mostly things that’s were Avery related, but he’d mostly read anything he could get his hands on. He even read _'The Complete History of Buttons'_   which was possibly the most boring thing he's ever laid eyes upon but anything way better than listening to arguments over who owes who money that usually led to brawls. Sam tried his best to avoid fights and drugs and anything that could extend his sentence. He did a good job of just keeping his head down and even managed to earn the approval of some of his cellmates too having proved himself as trustworthy. He’s glad he kept in shape too, or else the excessive climbing and running this job entails would be so much more difficult.

“Thank God we’re not playing big bucks here or I’d be broke!” Sully exclaims, lighting up another cigar.

“I’d say I hate taking money off of you but that would be a lie. Another game then fellas?” asks Sam, pocketing the cash, thinking of what he will spend it on.

“No way, I’m not losing anymore money to you. I’m going to find out how you’re cheating.” Charlie furrows his eyebrows at Sam.

“Now now Charles, no one like a sore loser,” he jokes.

Charlie huffs and leaves the table. “You are such a wind up merchant. I’m going to bed.”

“Yeah we should try to get some shuteye before tomorrow. Got a long ride ahead of us,” Sully agrees and the three of them get ready for bed.

 

**You**

You stare with wide eyes at the ceiling, feeling the gentle cool air dancing lightly over the bare skin of your arms. Lying awake, you now find it impossible to sleep as you mull over the texts you received earlier. Irritated and with nothing to do, you get out of bed and walk over to the balcony, to stare at the scenery rather than a partially mouldy ceiling. As you move the lace curtains that cover the open door to the balcony out of the way, you are greeted by a large puff of smoke in your face. You turn to your left to see Sam is also on his balcony, smoking a cigarette and reading a book. He sees you there and smiles at you, and you also smile back awkwardly.

“Need a light?” he asks, assuming that is the reason you have come outside. 

You know you shouldn’t but your nerves are getting the better of you at this current moment. You cannot always control your anxiety levels, sometimes you get like this for no reason, and you just have to wait it out. For a time the smoking helped to calm you down but you knew you had to quit for her health's sake. But right now you could _really_ use a cigarette. “I shouldn't. I quit about a year ago.”

"Oh shit sorry, I'll put it out."

"No. No it's alright." You try to have some willpower but as the smoke gloriously fills your nostrils you are finding it increasingly hard to resist. "Sod it. I'll have one."

"You sure?" he asks and you nod in response. He tosses you the whole pack and the lighter over to your balcony and you put the end of the cigarette to your lips, lighting it up. You breathe it in, deep into your lungs. You hate yourself for it but it feels too damn good to stop. You lean your head back and feel the anxiety simply pour away. “You know you shouldn't smoke, it’s bad for you,” you say to Sam.

He laughs at your irony and then takes another drag of his own. “Yeah yeah. You sound like my brother.”

“So, what’re are you reading?” you ask, not really interested but simply trying to make conversation.

“Err  _‘The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire’_ ,” he replies, showing you the hardback cover that has a painting of the Colosseum on it. “You look surprised. Didn’t think I’d be interested in history?”

“No, I just didn’t think you could read.”

He rolls his eyes at you but smiles as he always does, like he is used to your insults by now. You suppose it is like a defense mechanism to prevent him from getting close to you, but it doesn't seem to be working. “I was reading up on Juan Ponce De Leon earlier on Wikipedia. Isn't Wikipedia amazing? Can you believe you can carry an encyclopaedia around with you in your phone? It’s amazing!” he says enthusiastically and you cannot stop yourself from laughing at his new giddy child-like demeanour. 

“Have you only just discovered it or something?”

“Well yeah, I was in prison or thirteen years and technology has changed a lot since then. I’ve had a lot of catching up to do. I’m still confused about the thing with the dog ears and flower crowns.”

“You mean snapchat?”

“That’s the one. Why are you out here anyway?” he asks, blowing rings with the smoke and you are mildly impressed. You've never been able to do that.

“Couldn’t sleep. You?”

“Victor and Cutter snore. Really loud. Couldn’t bear listening to it any longer. Sounds like two walruses fighting in there. Or mating.”

“Oh wow,” you giggle, your eyes meeting Sam’s lips as he wraps them around the tip of his cigarette. He is attractive in an odd sort of way, you think. He is clearly much older than you, maybe mid forties, but he still looks good for his age. Sure, he has terrible sense in fashion, double denim for instance, and a prison tattoo of four birds on his neck that look like they’ve been drawn on by a five-year-old with a sharpie. But there _is_ something about the man. He is certainly physically fit, that’s for sure and much more intelligent that you had immediately given him credit for. And yet he was so arrogant and if there is any trait that irritates you in a person it's that. But then sometimes he is nice and tries to make conversation with you, even though you’ve dismissed him time and time again. You cannot work this man out at all. And that means he is dangerous.

You stay in silence for some time, both smoking the time away. Finally, you put it out on the balcony rail and decide to finally ask Sam about Panama, since you have been wondering how he ended up there for a while. “So er…prison huh?”

He folds over the corner of his book and puts it down on his lap. “Yeah.” He doesn't meet your eyes. 

“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“You might as well know." He turns to face you. "Me, Nate and Rafe were looking for Henry Avery’s lost treasure and to do that we needed to get into a Panamanian jail to check out Burnes’ old cell. And the guard we bribed to get in said he wanted a cut of the treasure so Rafe, like any sane human being, decided to kill him. Then there was a prison break and, I got shot. Nate and Rafe, they left ‘cause they thought I was dead. The doctors patched me up, tossed me straight back into my cell, and I stayed there for thirteen years. Until Rafe bribed the prison to let me out when he found out I was still alive and needed an expert on Avery. Then he made me work with him until I got away and went to find my brother.”

“Rafe sounds like a dickhead.”

“Oh he was, believe me.” Sam laughs wryly. 

“So did you get it? The treasure?” you ask, enthralled by his story. You can’t imagine being in prison for so long for something you didn’t do. You’d been in jail a couple of times in your younger days when you had been caught stealing but it was never for very long and the British system is far less brutal than Panama. You can hardly compare your situation to his. He must have felt so alone. You hope he found the treasure, or else his sacrifice was all for nothing.

“Oh boy, did Charlie not tell you?” You shake your head. “Oh we found it, and so much more. We found Libertalia.”

“No fucking way! You found the secret pirate colony? I've always wondered if that truly existed. What was it like?”

“Amazing. To say you’ve stepped foot where no one else has for centuries is just indescribable. But it ended like everything else does. With death and betrayal.”

You nod in agreement. “And the treasure?”

“Didn’t get as much of it as we hoped. We were on Avery’s ship and it was sort of on fire and sinking so we were lucky to get out alive. But I got enough to get my own place and Nathan and Elena set up their business.”

“Elena?”

“Wow you really have been out of the loop for a while. She’s Nathan’s wife.”

“So he’s really out of the business then? Never thought I’d see the day.”

“Yep. Gives me a chance to chance to catch up with all the lost cities he’s found. And destroyed.”

You laugh, remembering all the times you had escaped by the skin of your teeth, with hardly anything to show for it. “It must have been hard for you. Being stuck in prison while Nate was out exploring and making new friends.” You hope you're not over stepping the mark here. “I’m surprised you’re not more bitter.”

“Yeah it was hard but I can’t change anything. What happened happened and what’s important is that I’m out and living life. It is what it is. Just wish I hadn’t aged so quickly, you know. Feels like I don't have enough time left to do what I wanna do.”

“If it makes you feel any better I just got called a selfish heartless bitch by my fiancé. Well ex-fiancé.” 

“What the hell? Why?”

“Because I left him. I said I had to think some stuff through and I wasn’t ready to commit after three months and…well he didn’t exactly like that. He thinks I’m a gold digger.”

“Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter how upset you are, it’s no excuse to call a woman names like that. You can do a lot better than that asshole.”

“You think?”

“Yeah come on, you’re smart, funny. Kinda mean but I can take it. Sounds like you let him down gently so the guy’s obviously got issues of his own. He's probably never been rejected before. You’re not heartless. Just human.”

“Thank Sam,” you say. You feel a lot better now and you're not entirely sure if it’s the nicotine or Sam’s kind words, or a combination of both. You never expected it from him and you're not sure if you even deserve it. You don;t know why you told him all of that to be honest, but you felt like getting it off your chest and he was there. And now you are glad that you did. “Thanks for the light,” you say as you go back through the curtains. Suddenly you turn back and poke your head through the door. “Goodnight Mr Rodriguez," you say.

He laughs, picking up his book again. “Goodnight Mrs Rodriguez." You smile to yourself as you get back into bed and fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow.

 

* * *

 

 

“This had better be good Romero,” an angry voice says in Spanish down the phone. It is late, but he knows the boss will want to hear what he has to say.

“My house was broken into tonight. The disk is gone,” Sebastien informs him, in English, hoping he will not be too angry at the news. They were not expecting competition on this job and now it has become so much more complicated.

“What? This had better be a joke. And if it isn't a joke you'll be sorry for waking me for no reason,” the man yells. He hates having to deal with him he knows he must endure it for this job. He needs his money after all. 

“No joke. But I checked the CCTV and found something you’ll be _very_ interested in. I’ll pass you over to Prescott.”

The other man, Prescott, takes the phone and presses it against his ear. He is tall, lean and blond- somewhere in his mid-thirties. Sebastien knew it was a risk taking him on but thus far their partnership has proved very fruitful. “It’s her,” the man replies in an English accent.

“Who? Don’t play games with me child,” the boss says.

“Y/N. She was here. She took the disk.”

There is a pause on the other end. Most likely the last person he was expecting to hear from again. “Are you sure?”

“I see her, clear as day,” says Prescott and he puts his finger on the screen, where her face is. Sebastien knows he also has history with the woman but he not sure how they knew each other. Or how they parted. But as long as he still gets his paycheck, he doesn't really care. 

“And she’s with Samuel Drake,” adds Sebastien, recoiling at the sound of the name 'Drake' rolling off his tongue. He thought with Nathan out of the picture they would never have to deal with those pests again but it appears his dead brother has come back to life.

“And who is that?”

“Nathan Drake’s brother. Works with that old man, Victor Sullivan. They’ve been known to wipe out whole armies. This could be very bad for us.”

“Not unless your men have been trained inadequately, Prescott.”

“They have not,” the other man defends the mercenary company he has built completely from scratch. It is true, the Brit has spent a lot of hours and money on creating a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps they will be ones to finally put an end to the infamous treasure hunters once and for all.

“Good. Then where are we headed?”

“We know the last place Juan Ponce De Leon looked for the fountain was Bimini in the Bahamas. Seems like a logical place to start,” says Sebastien. “But we need to get that disk back. Without it what we already have is useless. If they have any sense they will be heading there too.”

“Then fly out immediately and I will meet you there. And one more thing. Do not harm Y/N. I want her brought to me alive.”

"Understood."


	6. On The Trail

**You**

“Nope, he won’t sell to us,” Sully says, as he returns from talking to the manager of the car rental company, looking extremely angry. It is rare that his charms fail to work. The manager is obviously not female. The whole situation is bizarre, given that your driving licenses are in order and as far as the company knows you are mere tourists.  

“They give a reason?” asks Sam as you wait impatiently outside the building.

“None at all. Just keeps repeating that he can’t give us a car. You don’t think they’ve been paid off do you?”

“By Romero? You think he’s here?” you ask. You were hoping that they wouldn’t be clever enough to figure out that the fountain was in Bimini but clearly these guys are professionals. Yet surely they would get nowhere without the map left by Ponce De Leon and so you had one hell of a head start.

“It’s possible. He’s bound to have realised what’s missing by now and be on his way with his goons to get it back,” Sully huffs and lights up yet again.

“Alright ya bunch of pricks,” Charlie greets cheerily, walking towards them and carrying a bag of provisions for the day. “What’s ruffled your feathers mate?” he asks Sully who is now pacing the floor, trying to figure out a plan.

“They won’t give us a car,” you inform him when Sully ignores the question, deep in thought.

“Why?” he asks incredulously. He wears faded jeans and a plain black shirt, sweating profusely from the heat, and it occurs to her she’s never seen him without his leather jacket. 

“God knows. But it’s too far to walk, the locations are on opposite sides of the island. Maybe it’s not the only car for hire on the island? We can find somewhere else?” you suggest though you know it’s unlikely given how small the place is. You’ve been here less than an hour and you already hate it here. The place, for the most part, is a holiday resort so you are wondering what exactly will be waiting for you when you reach those red crosses. Nothing dangerous you hope, but then when was this line of work ever anything but?

“We can look. Where’s Sam?” he asks, looking around the small crowd of people heading towards the market.

“He’s right-” you turn around to where he was standing a minute ago to find he is no longer there. “Well he was right there but now I have no idea.”

“Great so we have no car and no Sam. Great bloody start.”

Suddenly you see him waltzing out of the entrance of the rental building, talking his time to get to them, trying to look as casual as he possible could. Which of course made him look guilty as sin “Miss me?” he says smugly.

“You were gone for two minutes, so no,” you reply, folding your arms over your chest. You hate this intense heat that you are not used to. You wear a black top with denim shorts and combat boots which is appropriate for the job but makes to hot as hell. Sam, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying his Hawaiian shirt that you can only assume is on loan from Sully. Just when you thought the double denim was bad enough. “Where did you go then Houdini?”

Sam stares at you blankly for a second. “Oh shit yeah.” He digs into his jean pocket and pulls out some keys, dangling them in front of your face. “You’re not the only good pickpocket here you know.”

“Well shit,” says Sully, a smile finally showing itself on his face. “Seems our problems are solved. Good job kid.”

As Charlie grabs the bag and Sully takes the keys from Sam, not letting him drive again after last time, you pull him back by the hand. “Hey can I talk to you for a second?” you ask, feeling a sudden surge of nervousness.

“Sure what’s up?”

“I um…” you pause, trying to recollect yourself so that you can say the words you want to say. You take a deep breath. “I wanted to say sorry. For how I’ve been with you. I’ve been mean to you and I judged you without really knowing you and…shit I’m not good with emotions and… ugh shit sorry… you didn’t have to say those things last night. I probably didn’t deserve it but you made me feel better and…” your voice trails off as you gazes at the floor, trying to avoid eye contact with Sam. He treated you with respect last night and you know you have to apologise but that makes it no less easy for you. You know it’s one of your many faults, having a hard time admitting when you are wrong. But it is one you are trying to rectify.

“Hey don’t worry about it. Apology accepted,” he says, smiling and patting you on the shoulder. “So we friends now?” he extends his hand for you to shake.

“Well I wouldn’t go that far. Let’s just say I can tolerate you,” you slap his hand, laughing so that he knows you are joking. You don't think you’re quite there yet, but in time you could be.

“Aw, that’s so sweet,” he jokes back, putting his hand against his heart.

“Oi you two,” Charlie calls, getting into a SUV with Sully. “Can you stop taking the piss and get in the car before those tossers inside realised we nicked it?”

“Suppose we better go,” Sam chuckles, and you agree as you run to the car and speed off in the direction of the closest location.

 

The first place you arrive at is a church in the centre of Alice Town on the north of the island. It is surrounded by shops, restaurants and some public gardens nearby. In other words, you will have to make sure you are discreet. The four of you exit the vehicle and check around the sides of the building for any clues that could lead them to whatever it is that Ponce De Leon wants you to find here. “I think it’s got to be inside,” you say, having found nothing.

“Yeah think you’re right kid, lets go in,” Sully agrees.

“Boy I hope they’re not in the middle of mass,” says Sam, pressing his ear against the wooden door to try to detect any noise from within.

“I don’t hear any awful singing so I think we’re clear,” you say as you push the large doors open and enter the now empty church. It follows a standard protestant layout, two columns of wooden pews and an altar in a small platform at the front of the church, under a large arched window. All the walls a painted white which makes the room seem extremely bright.

“So what are we looking for exactly?” Sam asks, searching around the altar, knocking over several crucifixes in the process. “Sorry Jesus,” he mutters, picking them up quickly like nothing ever happened.

“I don’t know, anything that could be related to the fountain. This church looks like it dates back to about early 1700s, so pretty much anything that predates that,” Charlie suggests, checking behind a velvet curtain.

“So Sully?” Sam replies, laughing as both you and Charlie join in. You really wished that Sam Drake was easier to hate. 

“Thin ice kid,” Sully warns from across the room. “Woah, what was that?” he says, gripping onto a pew as the floor begins to shake.

“What did you do?” you ask Charlie, who looks like he is on to something.

“I pressed this button here,” he says and they all go to look at what he found. “If you see a button, you’ve got to press it, right?” The button is small and easy to miss but it just out from the wall slightly and a symbol depicting a frog has been carved into the stone.

“A…frog?” asks Sam, gazing at it curiously.

“Why in God’s name is there a frog in a church?” says Sully.

“Victor, don’t blaspheme in church,” says Sam, shaking his head jokingly at the older man.

“I’ll tell ya kid, I’ve done far worse things in church.” You really don't need any help believing that, from the many stories he has told you before, though you were never a hundred percent sure how true they were.

“I’d rather keep my breakfast on the inside thanks,” Charlie interjects.

You stare at the carving in the rock intently, as you try to connect the dots in your head. If memory serves you correctly then this would prove that the foundations of the church are a lot older that it’s new architecture. “It’s a Taino symbol,” you say, gaining their attention.

“A what now?” Sully questions.

“The Taino. They were indigenous people of the Caribbean. The frog is significant in their culture. The legend goes that the god Guahoyona abducted all women, leaving the men to take care of the children, who out of hunger began to cry for their mothers. When the children could not be consoled by the men, they turned into frogs.”

“Yeah that’s tragic and all, but what does this mean?”

“You’re all heart Victor,” says Sam.

“I was getting to that,” you continue. “Ponce De Leon came into contact with them in the Spanish-Taino war of 1511. And they went extinct in 1519 due to a smallpox outbreak.”

“So the original foundations of the church have to be older. Built on an old Taino temple perhaps?” Charlie suggests.

“Exactly. So Ponce died in 1521, meaning between 1511 and 1519 he was looking for a way to cure his age and found his way to Bimini after, where he encountered the Taino, more specifically the Lucayans. And they told him all about the powers of the fountain.”

“Where are you going with this exactly?” Sully asks again.

“I’m saying maybe it’s all linked and this symbol is the key. The Lucayans could have helped him find it.”

“Why would they do that if he’d slaughtered their people?” Sam questions, as he nods along to what you aresaying.

“Fear maybe. He did come with a small army. Or wanting to find the long lost myth for themselves. I don’t know exactly, I’m just hazarding a guess but I can’t see why else the symbol would be here if they weren’t working together. But whatever waits for us, I’m guessing it will have more to do with this symbol. There has to be more around here.”

The four of you split up and search the walls of the church for more carvings like the frog. What pushing them will do, you are unsure of, but it has to be what leads you to the next thing. “Look there’s another one here. A man with a bowl on his head?” Sam calls.

You rack your brain for knowledge on that particular symbol. If you had known that Taino history would be involved you would have brushed up on it before you left. Now you will have to make do with what you can piece together from memory. “Uh… the name has gone but the bowl was used for ritual hallucinogens.”

“Wow, they sound fun!” Sam says and you're not sure if that was meant to be serious or not. Knowing Sam it probably was.  

“Got a snail over here, “calls Sully.

“And a…baby? I think. These guys really need to take art classes,” Sam says, finding another one.

“Wait a second.” Charlie pulls out the journal from his trouser pocket and begins to flick through the pages to find the map. He pulls it out and flip it around, studying it carefully. “Ponce De Leon’s map has these symbols on the back of it,” he tells you three. “It has numbers next to them so if we press them in the right order…something should happen, right? Something good preferably.” You all nod as each of you goes to a button. “Okay so, first it’s weird bowl man, then the baby, frog and then snail. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear myself say.”

As you press the buttons in the right order, the ground opens up, revealing a large winding staircase leading down into an underground network of corridors.

“That looks uh…” Charlie gulps and trickles of sweat start to drip from his brow. “Narrow.”

“Still claustrophobic? Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon. Take deep breaths,” you say, trying to calm him. You can’t say you're a fan of small and dusty tunnels either. “You guys ready?”

“After you dear,” says Sam as Sully heads down first, cussing on the way. Charlie follows, still scared but managing to carry on. “Go on,” he says to you. “I’ll cover you.”

“Thanks,” you reply, walking ahead. Sam follows and the four of you walk down the steep stairs, gripping onto the walls as you descend deeper underground.


	7. Building Bridges

**You**

“So uh,” you feel a hand on your shoulder and flinch before realising it is just Sam. The tunnels is almost pitch black, the only light coming from the stairway, making it near impossible to see anything. “Anyone got a torch?” he asks.

You dig into your short pocket and pull out your phone, using that as a light. “This will have to do for now.” 

“I really don’t like this,” says Charlie as the four of you walk onwards.

“Oh come on what’s the worst that can happen?” asks Sully unsympathetically.

“Oh oh I don’t know, the roof could cave in, the walls could collapse, we could trip over something and die, something could jump out at us, we could run out of air-”

“Alright alright I get your point.”

“Are the walls closing in? It definitely feels like they’re getting closer. You know, like in Star Wars.” His voice is jittery and he walks very slowly in front of you. You have no idea where he got his claustrophobia from but he’s been like this for as long as you’ve known him. It’s strange to see him like this as you’ve always seen him as being fearless, like a protector. He was sort of like a father to you, in your own dysfunctional way.

“The walls aren’t moving anyway Charlie,” you reassure him. “The sooner we find whatever it is we’re meant the find, the sooner we can be out of here.” You walk along the seeming never ending corridor for a while until you find a torch hanging from the wall that Sully lights using his lighter, giving you a better view of what is in front of you. That is the one good thing about having smokers on the team.

“So Y/N,” you hear Sam say as he walks next to you now that the tunnel has gotten a little wider, giving Charlie some relief. “You know all that stuff off the top of your head?” he asks.

It takes you a second to think what he means but then you realise he is talking about you’re the knowledge you displayed upstairs. “Uh yeah. Ancient civilisations are kind of my thing,” you reply. You spent half your life as a kid reading books on ancient history and archaeology. You always thought that’s where your career was headed at that age, having no idea you would end up a thief with proficient gun skills. If only your life had been different.

“That’s pretty impressive,” he says, making you smile. “I do like ancient history but pirates are my main thing.”

“Figures,” you reply. “Sounds like you spent most of your life researching them. I bet you watched all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.”

“Oh at least a hundred times.”

“Oh shit!” you say abruptly as your foot meets an uneven cobble and you feel yourself falling forward. Sam catches you just in time, wrapping his arms around your waist and hoisting you back on to your feet. “Thanks,” you say awkwardly wrapping your arms around your waist as the force of him pulling you hurt quite a bit. You never realised quite how muscular his arms were until now. He clearly didn’t slack off in prison.

“No problem sweetheart, just watch where you’re going.” You roll your eyes at the endearment and continue walking. After what feels like hours, you come to a wooden bridge.

“Doesn’t look safe,” says Sully.

“It’s fine,” you say, walking past them and stepping onto the rickety old bridge. As you feel yourself starting to sway you immediately regret your decision. You walk a little further before you sense the wooden panel about to snap below your feet. You run as fast as you can to try to reach the other side before the whole thing comes down but you don’t quite make it. The bridge falls and but you are just able to grip onto one of the panels and hoist your way up to the other side. That was way too close a call. “See. Fine,” you say, trying to make light.

Sully laughs and shakes his head. “You’re lucky kid. We’ll have to find another way across. It’s too far to jump.”

You look down the gap where the bridge used to be to see it goes down very far and there is water at the bottom. It makes you shudder to think you could be down there right now had luck not been on your side.

“Looks like we can climb on those panels around the side,” says Sam, pointing to the wall where some wood juts out just enough for them to hold onto and shimmy across. You only hope it holds their weight.

“I’m getting too old for this shit,” says Sully, jumping up to catch the first panel. Luckily, the three men make it across and join you on the other side. For once it you wish you could have a linear path where not everything breaks when you touch it. Just once.

“There we go,” you say. “That wasn’t too difficult now was it?”

“Speak for yourself. Please tell me there’s no more bridges,” Sully huffs.

“You spoke too soon, there’s another gap up here,” you say as you reach the end of the path. There are two gaps ahead this time where the bridges have already rotted away and collapsed. _Great, now what?_

“There’s a beam up there,” Sam says, pointing up and you realise what he’s suggesting. “We can swing off that to the other side.”

You go first again, wrapping your rope around the beam and swinging to the where the path continues Tarzan style. As you step down, the path begins to slide downwards and you feel yourself being hurtled into the air. With a thump you land on the other side.

“Hey, did you ever think about think about joining the circus?” Sam calls from the other side, making you laugh quietly. The three men follow you, swinging to the middle and then also sliding to where you are stood. You note some more panelling on the side of the wall which means you will be able to get back up to the middle part at least. “Well this is a fun work out,” says Sam as he dusts himself off.

“I think I prefer yoga,” you reply.

“At this point me too.”

“Hey kids,” Sully interrupts but you don’t really hear him and instead you start to laugh at Sam.

“Really? I would pay to see you do yoga.” You have a hard time imagining him in tight yoga leggings doing downward dog. Though the more you think about it the more you want to see it. Whether for hilarity or for his body in spandex, you are unsure.

“What? Don’t think I’m flexible enough?”

“HEY,” Sully says much louder, the sound ricocheting off the walls and making one almighty echo. You both close your mouths and look at him immediately. He points to what’s in front of him and you follow his gaze, seeing a large golden door emblazoned with the Taino symbol of the sun on it.

“Well…shit,” you say in amazement, walking towards it. You try to push it open but it is jammed shut.

“Wait,” says Charlie. “More symbols.” He points to four buttons, two on either side of the wall. You all press them at the same time and the door begins to slowly open into a small room. You step inside and see that there is some kind of contraption in the centre. “Woah…” you say looking at it. It's certainly from Ponce De Leon’s time, that’s for sure. It looks Spanish in style which confirms that he built this, not the Taino. Before you there is a circular ring on the wall, with three smaller rings inside, and some kind of wheel mechanism on the ground that presumably turns each ring. “So we have to turn the wheels to make the right shape?” you ask. You’ve seen things similar to this before but have never been very good at them. “Who wants to have a go?”

“I’ll do it,” says Sam stepping forward. “I’m pretty good at these.” As Sam starts to move the second ring the outer ring also moves. “Ah shit they all move together. Okay it’ll be a bit harder but give me a minute.”

As you watch Sam try to figure out the puzzle, amused by his furrowed brows and scrunched up face deep in focus, Charlie walks over to you. “You seem to be getting on with Sam better today?” he says.

“Yeah I guess he’s not so bad,” you reply. He nods as you stay in silence for a while. “Do you trust him?” you ask. You have felt yourself feel a little closer to him today and if you are going to be working together for some time you need to know if he can be trusted. And more so if you are to become friends. In truth you have been waiting for him to betray you, so that you can say you were right all along, but now you weren’t so sure. It’s entirely possible that he didn’t mean anything he said last night and he had some hidden agender, but you _felt_ it. You really felt like he meant every word. And that terrifies the hell out of you.

Charlie looks at you, folding his arms. “I’d trust Sam with my life,” he says. “I was a bit sceptical at first. You know, Nate’s got a brother all of a sudden even thought he’s never mentioned him and by the way he sort of lied about how he got out of prison. But he’s become a good friend. He’s got our backs. And he’s a pretty decent drinking buddy.”

You smile and nod. That was all you needed to hear. Charlie stares at you, smirking like he knows something you don’t. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No reason.” He says smugly and just as you are about to question him further, you hear the contraption make a loud noise.

“Ta-da!” you hear Sam say as all the rings have now formed to make a sun, the same as on the front door.

“That was quick,” you say and you can hear something moving, coming from behind the sun.

“Well I’m not just a pretty face,” Sam says, looking extremely please with himself. You really don’t know how he did that so quickly.

“You’re not even that mate. Your face looks like a smacked arse,” Charlie jokes, patting him on the back.

“And yours looks like it’s been through a mincer. And then run over by a tank.” Sam retorts, not letting the banter be one-sided. You dread to think what their pub crawls are like, especially after a few drinks.

“At least it doesn’t look like a Picasso painted it.”

You lean over to Sully while they continue insulting each other. “Are they always like this?” you ask him.

“Oh yeah. Sometimes I feel like a goddamn babysitter.”

All of a sudden, the circle splits in half and opens like a door, revealing a shining gold object on a pedestal inside. You reach and find what looks like a third of a disk, similar to the one from earlier that had lead you here. It bears some kind of pattern but you cannot make out what it is without the other pieces.

“The hell is this?” asks Sully. “This guy really wants to make it hard for us.”

“It looks like the other two locations have to other pieces,” you say. “And it’ll make another disk. Where that will lead I don’t know but-”

“But let’s get the other pieces before Romero has a chance to catch up with us,” Sully suggests and you couldn’t agree more.

“Precisely.” You walk back the way you came, having to use your rope again and climbing along the rusty wood, praying you don’t get any splinters. You really should have gotten a tentanus jab before you came. Finally, you reach the staircase and can finally see some light again.

“Oh thank God,” says Charlie but you hush him quickly when you hear voices coming from above.

“Buscar en el área,” you hear a man say. “Encuéntralos!”

“Charlie,” you whisper. “Please tell me you brought guns.”

“In the car,” he replies. _Brilliant. Just bloody brilliant._

Suddenly the sound of footsteps gets closer. “Aquí! Aquí!” another man says as he starts to come down the stairway. Charlie dodges the bullets and runs towards the man, headbutting him and thus knocking him out. He takes one gun for himself and tosses the other to you.

“Hey what about us?” Sam complains.

“Wait there,” you say as you go up the stairs and run for cover behind the pews. The place is crawling with men, but who they work for you are unsure. Romero must have hired an army for this one. Which, unfortunately for you, meant they were dealing with people who had a lot of money and resources.

You managed to take out one man close to you and crawl over to him, taking his gun and a few grenades while you’re at it. You toss the gun down the stairs to Sam and Charlie throws one to Sully too. They join you upstairs, also taking cover.

“Oh shit. Snipers, lookout,” you warn as you propel a grenade over to the front door, shattering it and sending the snipers flying. _So much for being discreet_.

Without you noticing, a man comes up behind you and wraps his arms around your neck and tries to strangle you. You struggle, kicking your legs against him and using your arms to try and wrench yourself free, but it’s no good. You start to feel the life drain from you. Suddenly, you feel the absence of his arms as you plummet to the ground and turn around to see that Sam has shot him in the back of the head, releasing you from his deadly grasp. “Thanks,” you call in a raspy voice as you desperately try to get more air into your lungs.

“Anything for you darlin’,” he replies getting back into cover.

The four of you take out the remaining guys and are soon left in silence, surrounded by dozens of bodies. You step over them to reach the others.

“Where the hell did they come from?” Sully asks angrily. “How did they know we were here?”

“Ain’t got a clue mate. You still got the disk?” Charlie asks you.

“Yeah. Have you got the map?” He nods. “Then let’s get to the next place before the police show up.”

 

**Sam**

The next location on the map leads them to a sixteenth century manor house on the south east part of the island. Exiting the car, and remembering to bring their guns with them this time, they make their way up to the large oaken door. Even knowing that the front door is never unlocked, Sully tries it anyway. “Well, not getting in that way. Maybe there’s a back door or secret entrance or-” Sully stops as he hears the sound of glass breaking and turns to see Y/N has thrown a brick through the window.

“This way. Just mind the glass,” she says as she climbs through.

Sully glances at Sam, chuckling at her natural thieving instinct, before following her inside. There is a bit of a drop down as they jump through, landing in the foyer of the house. It has been abandoned for some time and parts of the walls have crumbled and the roof has caved in. Some furniture still remains, such as cabinets, chairs and bookcases, but for the most part it has been stripped bare and the surrounding trees have started to grow over the ruins. There is a beauty in it, in a strange kind of way. Almost eerie. On the north facing wall there are some elegant double doors, painted a gorgeous burgundy colour that had started to chip away, and on either side are two winding staircases. With both of them broken in the middle, they will have to find a way around. “It’s definitely sixteenth century,” Sam says as he notes the portrait of Charles I of Spain.

“And look!” Y/N says from the other side of the room. “Taino symbols! It looks like a Shaman maybe.”

He smiles as he observes her playful fascination with history. She is an interesting woman, to say the least. So calm and cutting at times but when faced with her passion she becomes adorable and with the enthusiasm of a young child. He can’t say he isn’t happy about her apology this morning, knowing he doesn’t annoy her quite so much now. He tries hard to stop himself from saying it, even to himself, but deep down he knows he has developed a crush on the woman. Before he thought he had no chance but now, in time, he may be able to win her affection.

But was that what he wanted? Would a relationship between them even work? Would she want to settle down and have children? Does he want love more than he wants adventure? Does he even deserve to be loved? _How is it that a woman I hardly know can make me feel like a teenager again?_ With so many questions swimming around in his head he is beginning to think that it was better when she hated him.

“Looks like we’re in the right place then,” Charlie replies. “Let’s try and find a way through this.”


	8. Moving Forward

**You**

“Anyone see a way up?” asks Sully as you scan the building for a way out but with no luck. Everything has fallen into ruin so there is no obvious way forward that you can see.

“Hey Charlie help me with this?” Sam says from the other side of the hall. The two men lift up a bookcase that has fallen down so that it is against the far wall. You wonder what they are doing for a moment until you see there is a ledge just above where you can jump through. A door used to be there but now rests on the floor below it is partially blocked by some fallen beams. There is a gap just small enough for a someone to climb through.

“Mate I don’t mean to be rude but I really doubt you’ll fit through there,” says Charlie as he looks at how narrow the gap in the wall is.

“Are you calling me fat?” Sam replies, feigning offence. “It’s all muscle.” He flexes his bicep and Charlie rolls his eyes. He has a point though. It _is_ all muscle. “Anyway, I wasn’t thinking of me going through there.” He glances at you and your eyes meet as you catch his meaning. You are the smallest of the group after all. It is quite a high jump but you think you can just about do it, with a little bit of help.

“Typical, leave the hard stuff to the woman,” you say as you walk across the room. “I’ll see if I can open the doors from the other side. Can someone give me a boost?”

“I’ll do it!” Sam immediately volunteers.

“No you won’t,” says Charlie protectively, shoving Sam out of the way as he bends his knees and cups his hands together for you to stand on. He hoists you up so that you are now standing on top of the bookcase. “You only wanted to do it so you can look at her arse,” you hear Charlie say to Sam below you.

“That’s not true,” Sam tries to defend himself but everyone in the room knows that it’s not true. You’re not that bothered by it, you’re used to men looking at you like that. Sam at least treats you with a degree of respect with is more than you’ve got from a lot of the others. Ignoring the conversation going on below, you grip onto the ledge and crawl under the small gap, just about making it through before it collapses behind you. “Well there’s no going back that way.”

“You okay back there?” Sully asks with concern.

“Yeah I’m fine,” you call back. Now to find away round to the door. You wonder who lived in here all those years ago, if it was even Juan Ponce De Leon himself. Though it was unlikely, he probably didn’t spend very long here and would become governor of Puerto Rico soon after. So, who did it belong to? And why was it abandoned? Perhaps it was already abandoned when he got he, leaving it a perfect location for one of his puzzles. This place is a complete mystery.

You find yourself in a corridor with large windows on one side and a long row of rooms on the other. Rails hang above the windows and doors, showing that any tapestries that were here have been torn down and likely sold. You look inside the rooms to see four poster beds that have also been stripped and the furniture has been slowly rotting away. It’s almost sad to see such a beautiful place so deserted.

You walk along the corridor to the room right on the end, on your left-hand side, and see that the floor has caved in, meaning you can drop down to the floor below. You jump down and find you are in a kitchen, which is again completely empty aside from the furnaces built into the walls. You kick the door open and head across the hallway to the large red doors that leads to the entrance where the rest of your group are waiting. You try to open it from your side but it is jammed shut. “Okay, I’m on the other side of the door but it won’t budge,” you shout, hopefully loud enough for them to hear.

“Ah shit,” Sam says as they try to push on their side but still nothing happens. “Come back, we’ll find another way.”

“I can’t come back, it collapsed remember.”

“Oh yeah, uh… just don’t move okay.”

“Yeah I’ll just hang out here,” you reply sarcastically. Suddenly you remember the grenades you took from one of the mercenaries earlier. “Stand away from the door,” you warn the others as you throw the grenade at the door, stepping as far back as you can. You cover your ears as the tumultuous racket fills the room and the doors blows wide open. You see the three men on the other side gazing at you in amazement.

“Where the hell did you get that from?” asks Sully, stepping over the rubble.

“Stole it from one of the guys back there. I’ve got a few more,” you say proudly.

“ _Attagirl_.”

You all walk along the rest of the hallway and reach a set of stairs that leads to the next floor and head to the left. Again, the floor has come down but it forms a ramp so that you can easily walk straight down again to the ground floor. There is a door to your right which seems out of place. It is thick and wooden, looking much like a door that should be on the outside of a building rather than the inside. You wonder if the rest of the house was maybe built around it. You push it open, needing a fair bit of strength, to find a room with stone floor and walls, completely lacking the lavishness of the rest of the mansion. It is incredibly cold inside compared to the unbearable heat you have been experiencing thus far. The room is littered with books and in the centre there is a sizeable stone table, almost like a sacrificial altar.  

“Well I’ll be damned,” says Sully as he dusts off the cobwebs from the table, revealing engravings of a fountain. “That’s a good sign.”

“What do we do with it?” you ask, looking around.

“Wait a second,” he says as he stamps his feet, looking rather strange.

“Hey Victor, now isn’t really the time for dancing,” Says Sam, flicking through an old leather-bound book.

“No, the ground is hollow. Maybe if we just move the table…” It takes all four of you to shift it and move it to the side. With it out of the way you see that it was covering a ladder leading down into darkness.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me,” Charlie complains, shuddering at the sight of it.

“You want to wait up here?” you ask him.

“And let you guys take all the credit?” He shakes his head. “I’ll be fine.” As you venture down you find that you are in some caves and, luckily for Charlie, the space is much less narrow than before. Using your phone as a torch again, you start to move cautiously on the uneven ground. Eventually you come to a halt when you see some shapes on the floor, arranged in a five by five square. Each square bears a Taino symbol, much like the buttons from the church. You are guessing that you have to step on them in the right order to open the door on the other side. Out of interest, you pick up a rock next to you and throw it onto one of the buttons, wincing as the rock sets alight. “Okay so who wants to go first?” Silence.

“Is there any clue on the map?” Sam asks Charlie.

“Yeah I’ll check,” he says as he pulls out the journal yet again. “Ah here we go. Forward, left, left, forward, forward, right-”

“Hang on, let someone walk across it first,” you say.

“What was that? You want to volunteer? Great.”

You narrow your eyes at him. “Fuck off, I’m not doing that. I quite like not being singed to death thanks.”

“Hey it’ll be fine, I have the directions.”

“Why don’t you do it then?”

“Because I’m reading the map,” he protests and you sigh in annoyance. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I could get burnt to a crisp.”

“Well it’s for a good cause,” Sam mutters under his breath.

“Shut up Sam,” you snap, punching the side of his arm, which in all honesty probably hurt you more.

“Pretty please,” Charlie begs, attempting to do puppy dog eyes at you.

“Ugh fine,” you agree against your better judgement. Cutter guides you to the other side and you make it across, by some miracle, without being burnt alive. You pull the leaver on the wall which disables the buttons of fire and opens the door, where you see a second golden piece. You take it and put it together with the second, just leaving the bottom to find. You can tell that the engravings are starting to make a picture of sorts but what it represents yet, you are not quite sure. “It looks like a house? A temple? I don’t know.”

“I guess it’ll make sense when we get the last piece. I hope,” says Sam.

You make your way back to the entrance of the house but you stop the others with your arm before walking through the door as you hear orders being issued in Spanish. They have followed you. Again. “Shit. How the hell are they doing this?”

“At least we got guns this time,” Sam replies, reassuring you a little.

“Is there anyway we can sneak around?”

“Maybe, if we go out that window we can creep around the fountain and through the bushes to the car,” he suggests.

“Okay, let’s try that.” You follow through with Sam’s plan, squatting down and moving around the fountain as quietly as you can. Suddenly, a man walks around and sees you but before he has a second to call for help, Sam is on him like a flash, knocking him out and laying him on the grass, all without being seen. You keep crouching, going through some bushes, until you reach the gate car. You sprint to the car as quickly as you can, Sully and Charlie taking the front and you and Sam in the back. The sound of the engine revving alerts them. You hear men shouting and gunshots start rapidly coming your way. “If you want to start driving anytime now that would be great,” you say to Charlie, who is now behind the wheel, and he finally starts to move the car. He puts his foot down as you and Sam try to take out as many men as you can so that you can’t be followed. Soon you are out of sight and carry on to your final location.

 

**Sam**

The car ride comes to an abrupt halt when the road ends and the water begins, but Charlie is still insisting that the map says they need to keep going forward. They park up and get out to have a look but all they can see for miles is an endless mangrove.

“Looks like we’re going to have to go through this. We can take that boat,” Y/N says.

“Are you kidding? This thing looks pretty damn difficult to navigate,” Sully replies. The water of the mangrove looks fairly deep, meandering in and out of the trees leaving a complex and winding path.

“Weren’t you in the navy?”

“Yeah on open waters not this. Are you sure the map says to go through here?”

“That’s what it says so we don’t really have much choice,” Charlie adds as they head over to the little wooden rowing boat. It is just big enough to fit them all in and soon they are off, leaving land behind. Sully and Charlie take the oars at first as they set sail.

“This is nice,” Sam says, enjoying the feeling of the breeze in his hair and the gentle sound of birds chirping. “Ouch!” he yells unexpectedly as a branch slaps him in the face which Y/N seems to be loving the sight of. He can’t help but laugh too as she is practically snorting and he finds it far too adorable.

Nevertheless, it is a scenic view and he takes a moment just to soak it all in and appreciate nature. His tranquil moment is soon interrupted when he feels Y/N grab on to him for dear life, like she is a koala bear. He turns his head to see her trembling with fear. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Is that…is that a shark?” she says, absolutely terrified. He looks overboard to see that there is in fact a large shark circling the boat.  

“Holy shit,” says Sully as he sees it too. “Is it dangerous? It looks huge.”

“It’s a bloody shark, of course it’s dangerous! Can we kill it?”

 “Oh I think it’s a lemon shark,” Sam says, observing the fascinating creature as it weaves around in the water majestically. It feels truly magical to witness it up close.

“I really couldn’t care less what it’s called Sam,” Y/N snaps.

“Lemon sharks aren’t dangerous,” Sam tell her as he puts his hand in the water and touches the shark’s ‘face’. “C’mon he’s hardly Jaws. He’s actually kinda cute.”

“Sam what the hell are you doing?!”

“See totally harmless,” he smiles and then suddenly he starts to scream in pain. “AaaHHAaaHhaa.”

“Oh my god Sam!” she cries in a panic. She tries to pull him back but he doesn’t budge, instead being yanked down forcefully. Suddenly he starts laughing uncontrollably and brings his hand out of the water and shows it to her, completely bite free. She does not look amused. “You are such a dickhead!” she screams in anguish. “I thought it was killing you!”

“I knew you loved me really,” he teases but it makes her even more angry.

“Do that again and I’ll push you in,” she says, shoving him roughly and rocking the boat slightly. But as much as she tries, she can’t contain herself much longer and starts to laugh too.


	9. Massacre

**You**

“How the hell do you know so much about sharks anyway?” you ask as you exit the boat and help to pull it close to the rocks so that you can tie it up. The mangroves were not fun to navigate and poor Sam, having sat at the front of the boat, bore the brunt of the branches smacking down violently on his face. You almost felt bad for laughing at him. Almost.

“I just watched a documentary on them not so long back,” he replies as the boat is secured and the four of you start to walk forward onto land.

“Oh I bet you watch those click bait videos on youtube like ‘megalodon caught on camera’ but it’s actually like a whale or something.”

“I may have seen a few of those,” he laughs, wiping a few drops of sweat from his brow. “But seriously there’s only three types of sharks that will actually attack you, there’s only like ten deaths a year. You’re more likely to get killed by cattle.”

“Thank you David Attenborough,” you say, mocking him. Although you find it funny, you like that he has a lot of interests, even if his main ones are smoking and women.

“Please don’t tell me it’s in here,” Charlie says as you look away from Sam and see the entrance of an enormous cave. It is the only path you can see and according to the map you are in the right place. There is no other way.

“Looks like it,” Sully replies. “Are you scared of caves now too?”

“Not scared, just don’t particularly like ‘em. Why can't our treasure never be in a beach resort or a bar?”

“Because then everyone would find it?” you chip in. You walk into the dark cave and find that there is no other path to follow. There is a large pool of water in the cave with rocks around it, covered in moss and other exotic plant, but no obvious way through. It appears you have hit a dead end.

“Where are we supposed to go now?” Sam asks generally but nobody replies, unknowing of the answer.

“Wait a second,” you say, suddenly getting an idea. You jump into the big pool of water and dive down, ignoring the calls of the others asking what on earth you are doing. As you descend further and further you find exactly what you were expecting. An entrance under the water adorned with Spanish architecture and a spiral carved into the stone, which you know to be the Taino symbol for water. You swim back to the surface rapidly to inform the others. “There’s an entrance down here,” you say.

“Oh for fucks sake,” Charlie complains. “I hate water.”

“Is there anything you don’t hate?” Sully asks him irritably.

“Lots of things. I just don’t like being wet.”

“I do,” you mutter to yourself thinking nobody would hear, but you see Sam chuckling next to you.

“Alright. Fine. Let’s just get this over with,” Charlie says as he joins you in the pool. Sam and Sully also get in as you all swim through the entrance through a small tunnel and emerge at the other side, gasping for breath. “I really hope there’s another way out of here.”

“Let’s just focus on finding the third piece for now,” you say as you venture deeper into the cave. “So er…Sully,” you say catching up with the old man, about to ask a question that has been on your mind for some time. “Sam told me about Libertalia but what else did I miss? Anything interesting happen while I was gone?”

“Oh kid you have no idea,” he starts. “Well there was El Dorado.”

“El Dorado?” you ask in surprise. Nate and Sully found El Dorado? This makes you feel a little angry as you had been on the trail for it just before you left as it meant a lot to you what with your Colombian heritage. It makes you bitter that you missed the adventure but you strain a smile and pretend that you are happy for them.

“Oh yeah. But everything was destroyed because it was driving people crazy. And then there was Shambala but,” Sully laughs wryly. “That also ended up a pile of rubble because of the insane power the chintamani stone held. And then there was the Pillars of Iram.”

“The Atlantis of the Sands?” you ask incredulously. Was there anything Nate hadn’t found?

“Yeah but it had to be-”

“Destroyed by any chance?”

“There was this stuff in the water that sent people nuts. Just ask Charlie.”

“It’s true, made me try to kill Nate,” Charlie says. “I’ll never forgive those bastards for breaking my leg.”

“You broke your leg?”

“It’s better now. Obviously,” he says gesturing his leg which shows no signs of ever being broken.

“I’ll tell you all about in more detail when we get back to the hotel,” Sully promises you.

“Sounds like you had a lot of fun,” you say, trying to cover your sadness. That could have been you. You could have done all these amazing things but instead you ran away like the coward you are and had been living this superficial life. You glance over to Sam who has rem silent throughout the whole conversation, he is gazing down at the ground and shifting his weight from foot to foot awkwardly, and you realise he is probably feeling the exact same as you are right now. He missed out on all of this too, being left to rot in a prison cell while his brother was out living the life he had wanted to lead. The more you get to know Sam, the more alike you think the two of you are.

The conversation quickly shits as you come to a ledge that is too high for any of you to jump. Charlie gives you a boost and you look for a way to help them up. Luckily, you find a conveniently placed crate and push it down for them to jump on. “Thanks kid,” Sully says as he climbs up last.

You walk forward a little further in silence before Sam comes up behind you. “So Y/N,” he says. “Do you like pirate jokes?” You look at his face and see that he is deadly serious.

“Uh yeah, I guess,” you reply as you figure where this is going.

“Okay okay I got a good one, what did the ocean say to the pirate?” he says and continues without even giving you time to answer. “Nothing, it just waved.”

“Where did you get that? A Christmas cracker?” you joke but even though the joke was awful you can’t help but laugh. You’re more laughing at his enthusiasm but the cheesy joke is mildly amusing.

“Okay what about this one? What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches?” You shrug as you wait for him to giddily tell you the answer. “A nervous wreck.”

You find yourself giggling again and then you remember a joke you heard ages ago that you think he might like. You’re happy to indulge his terrible jokes to cheer him, and yourself, up about earlier. And if you are honest with yourself another thing you share with him is an awful sense of humour. “Here’s one I know you’ll like. What’s a horny pirates’ worst nightmare?”

“I don’t know,” he says, looking intrigued.

“A sunken chest with no booty,” you say, awaiting his reaction. 

He laughs so hard you can hear it echo all around you. “That’s a good one,” he says. “You’re funny Y/N.”

“Oh dear God there’s two of them,” says Charlie as he listens to your conversation and Sully just roles his eyes. Having been partners with Sam for some time now he must have heard hundreds of dad jokes.

You come to another obstacle where you need to climb up again but thankfully there is a part of a broken ladder still dangling along the wall this time. Sam goes to climb up but as he does it starts to break and he only just makes it up in time. “Oops.”

“Oh thanks for that arsehole,” says Charlie.

“Wait,” you say as you walk over to a pile of rocks and start to push a particularly large one. “Help me move this.” The three of you push the rock to the wall where Sam is standing.

Charlie jumps first and Sam grips his arm, pulling him up. “Wow someone had a big breakfast,” Sam jokes. “Too many fry ups?”

“Shut up Drake,” Charlie replies.

Next he pulls Sully up and then finally you. You notice him staring at you as he does so. “Really Sam? I’m dangling off the edge of a wall and you’re staring at my cleavage?”

“I wasn’t. I was looking at…your top. It’s… a very nice top,” he says, still practically drooling over you. You move his head up by the chin and shake your head at him.

You notice as you proceed to follow the path you come a door, much like the other ones you have seen at the other locations. With a quick shove you actually get this one open and walk into an oblong room. On the opposite side of the room is a door with four statues in between: a lion, a fish, a bull and two women.

“Another puzzle?” Sam asks and Charlie gets the map out again.

“This makes no sense,” he says showing you the only clue left.

“Air north, water east, fire west, earth south,” you say, reading Ponce De Leon’s writing. It is the only thing left so it must relate to this but you are unsure how. It’s the elements but what does that have to do with the statures? Unless… “It’s zodiac symbols,” you say, suddenly making the connection. “The two women are the Gemini twins, so air. The fish is Pisces so that would be water. Lion is a Leo and that’s fire so that leaves the bull being Taurus, which is an earth sign.”

“Huh, I’m a Taurus,” says Sam.

“Is that because you talk so much bull?” Charlie replies and the two men laugh.

“So if we move them all to face the right way the door will open?” asks Sully and you nod in agreement.

You follow the instructions and sure enough the door opens and leads you to the final chamber. You feel a sense of excitement knowing that this could lead you directly to the fountain. You have missed the adrenaline of this job, the feeling of doing something amazing and far from ordinary. You’ve missed feeling important.

You walk through the doors and find something you did not expect to see. Hundreds of bodies. Everywhere. The skeletons lie on top of one another in what looks like a horrendous massacre. “What the hell happened here?” asks Sully as he kneels down to look at it all.

You walk around, taking in the misery around you as you look at all these poor souls. You spot a piece of worn paper on the chest of one of the skeletons. As you read it you are horrified.

“What have you got there?” asks Sam.

“The Taino were never helping the Spanish, they led them here, to an ambush. Except the Spanish weren’t so easily defeated. They killed them all.”

“Holy shit.”

“ _The chieftain of the tribe was the last to die. I kept him alive so that he may tell me where the fountain truly lies_ ,” you read Ponce De Leon’s words, translating it into English. “ _To protect his family, he finally told us the location. The fountain is not for the weak so I will make sure those who follow me must prove themselves worthy of such power_ yada yada yada. We were right this whole thing was an initiation and we’re on the wrong sodding island,” you say, feeling kind of defeated.

“But wait, if he killed all the Taino why go back and make puzzles with their symbols?” asks Sully.

“He goes onto say that despite all of this he respects them and their culture and that whoever hopes to find the fountain after he does needs to be intelligent and few people would take the time to research. So I guess he was rooting out the weak ones because he at least had the sense to know the whole world cannot be exposed to such power.”

“That’s all well and good but if the fountain isn’t on Bimini, where the hell is it?”

“Well I’m guessing that’s what this is for,” Sam say as he points to a large golden sphere with a lever at the side. Underneath there is lantern and Sam uses his lighter to illuminate the sphere. As the fire burns, light beams through holes in the sphere to make dots appear on the roof, which resembles the night sky. 

“They look a bit like stars,” says Charlie.

“Maybe we have to move the sphere to make a certain shape? Or constellation. What star sign was Ponce De Leon?”

“Aries,” Charlie informs.

“Anyone happen to know the Aries constellation off the top of their heads?”

“I might,” says Sully and he takes the lever and moves it about and eventually it clicks into place and the sphere opens, splitting in half, to reveal the final piece of the disk on a stand.

“Wow Sully I’m impressed. Knew we brought you along for a reason,” Sam says. As you put the pieces together you realise you are looking at a picture of a temple. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It looks Aztec. Or Mayan.” You look at the tinny inscription underneath the temple and can just about make out the words ‘ _Kinich Ahau’._ Your history on the civilisations of central America is rusty but you think that is a Mayan god. “This temple leads up to the fountain then.”

“But where _is_ the goddamn temple?” asks Sully.

“I don’t know,” says Sam, shrugging. “But lets’ figure it out back at the hotel.”

“Good idea, I’m starving,” Charlie says, holding his stomach.

Thankfully there is a ladder on the far right leading up the surface so you don’t have to go back the entire way you came. If you ever see a mangrove again it will be too soon. As you come up you find yourself surrounded by trees and scramble through the branches to find an opening. As you do you hear a beeping noise and you realise you are standing about a foot away from a grenade. “Get down!” you yell as you quickly run to safety.

Suddenly dozens of Romero’s men are on you and you search for some cover. You find a large root to hide behind and Charlie joins you there as you try to stop you attackers. It’s not use, there are too many for you to handle and you can only take a few out at a time. You throw the rest of your grenades their way but that still does not eliminate them all. You look to where Sam and Sully are crouching, behind a pile of rocks, and you see a grenade coming their way. Sam tells Sully to get back but the older man does not hear him. Sam yells from behind for Sully to get back with him but by then it is too late, the grenade is about to go off any second. Without thinking, Sully stands up and runs out of cover narrowly missing the explosion.

It all happens in slow motion. A gun shot lands on his chest and for a second he does not realise what has happened to him. As his shirt starts to stain red he looks down and the realisation hits him. He falls to his knees, clutching the wound.

“Sully!” you cry. And the rest is all a blur.


	10. Now or Never

**14 years ago, London**

You fiddle with the locks of the door vigorously until you are able to prize it open, and make your way into the building. You look around for the valuable historical item that you had just seen the rather shifty looking group of people take inside. You are unsure of what it is exactly but it looks Ancient Greek in origin, or perhaps Roman. The place is now clear of people as you check the back entrance and see that they have left through that door, now empty handed. You begin to look around and search through the draws to see if there is anything worth stealing in here. An antique like this could easily pay a hefty fee. As you search through a cabinet you find the artefact you were looking for; a classical style jewellery box with a large ruby on the centre.

All of a sudden, you hear the sound of the back door click open and, before you have a chance to hide, you see a group of three men behind you. Grabbing the box and hitting the first man who comes towards you in the torso with a chair, you flee out of the front door as fast as your feet will take you and head for the ginnel.

You run, pushing over people’s washing and bins as you go to slow your pursuers down but they seem to jump over the obstacles with great ease. You continue to run, trying not to look back, but you come to a dead end, trapping you like a cornered mouse. You turn to see the three men crowded around you. Now that you have a better look of them, they are not exactly what you expect. One is young, around mid to late twenties, with dark spikey hair. The other is around mid-thirties but he is bald and looks more thuggish that the other two; like a character from Eastenders. The third man looks a little older, perhaps fifty, and is still holding onto a lit cigar. He has an awful red shirt on that makes him look like a middle-class tourist.

You look up at them nervously and then squeeze your eyes shut, waiting for them to kick the shit out of you. You are surprised when nothing happens. Opening your eyes, you see that the bald man is crouching beside you. “Hey kiddo, we mean you no harm. We just really need that box,” he says softly, extending his hand for you to give him the artefact. You cling onto it more tightly, not trusting him to not hurt you once you hand it over anyway. You took it. It’s yours. Finders keepers. The worst they can do is kill you and if you don’t find the money to pay your dealer soon you may as well be dead.

“Listen boy,” the older man speaks in an American accent. He thinks you’re a boy because you have short hair and your hood covers most of your face. “You want money, fine. But that thing you got leads to something a hundred times better. Something like treasure that’s worth millions. You hand it over, you get a cut. Sound fair?”

Even if what they were saying is true, you can’t wait for whatever ever it is that the box leads to. You need the money today. You remain silent.

“You managed to pick your way into that office. You’ve obviously got some skill. We could use someone like you on our side,” the bald man says.

“Now hang on a minute,” the older man starts to say but he is cut off as the third man finally speaks.

Another American. “Sully none of us could pick locks like that. If we didn’t already have a key we would never have got in there. Those locks were insane.”

“I guess,” the man, Sully, says. “But can we trust him?”

“You’ll earn a lot more money with us than on your own,” the bald man says to you. “What’s your name?” he asks.

You remain silent again. You can’t just go with some random strangers. They could be serial killers for all you know. But then again if you stuck with these guys maybe they could keep the guys you’ve been running from off your back.

“Ah crap,” you hear the young one say, as you hear voices and footsteps that start to get closer. “They’ve found us. We gotta move.”

“Are you coming or not kid? You either deal with us or them,” Sully says, removing his gun from the holster around his waist. If he had a gun why had he not shot you on sight? Why try and barter for the box? You make a rash decision and decide to run with the men, just about managing to keep up as they vault over walls and duck into side streets rapidly. Eventually you manage to lose the thugs chasing you and have a moment to breath.

“Okay, I think we lost ‘em,” the bald man says, bending over and placing his hands on his thighs as he tries to get his breath back. He turns to you. “I’m Charlie by the way. And this is Sully and Nate.”

They both give you a slight wave and there is a silence where they are expecting you to tell them your name but you still don’t trust them enough. Not yet.

“Listen, how about you come back home with us? Get something to eat and shower. Then you can decide if you want to come in the morning. That sound good?” Charlie suggests.

You hesitate, worried about the prospect of going to a stranger’s house. But man would you love to eat. And wash yourself. You can’t actually remember the last time you showered properly and now your hair is all greasy and matted and you must stink to high heaven. And sleeping in a real bed instead of a sleeping bag on a pile of cardboard. Against your better judgement, you nod and follow them back to Charlie’s flat.

It’s small, nothing too fancy, but to you it is like the Ritz. You wolf down a donna kebab and hop straight in the shower, taking full advantage of all the soap and shower gel there is on offer. When you’re done you anxiously come out with a towel wrapped around your small body and hand Charlie your clothes to be washed. You always wore your ripped jeans and red hoodie as you couldn’t exactly afford any luxury. Charlie looks at you, confused for a moment as you try to cover yourself.

“Oh you’re a girl,” he says. “Sorry, I didn’t realise.” He goes into a room and brings you out some clothes; a white nightgown and a pink fluffy dressing gown decorated with multi-coloured unicorns. You glance at him curiously as you take the clothes from him and get changed in the bathroom.

When you come out he passes you a glass of water. “The others have just gone to sort something out. They’ll be back soon.” You still don’t respond and now you are seriously worried that you are alone with a man you don’t know. “Do you speak English?” he asks. You nod. “Just not much of a talker then?” You shake your head and he laughs, causing you to raise the ends of your lips ever so slightly. “You can watch the TV if you like. I doubt there’s much on, probably Coronation Street or some other crap like that.”

You nod again and go over to the TV and turn it on. Charlie goes into another room, leaving you alone. You decide to explore the flat. You look at his DVD collection, all action films like Indiana Jones, and his book collection which surprises you. It is almost all history and quite specialist too. You pick up a few and flick through them before putting them back gently. You go into another room, which is not furnished at all, with only boxes scattered around. You reach into one of the boxes and pull out a framed picture depicting Charlie and a young girl, no older than four or five. She is blond with pigtails and wears a pink flowery dress. _Jessica aged four_ it says on the back. You hear Charlie leaving the room from across the flat and quickly drop the photo back into the box and scurry out of the room. You get back onto the sofa and wrap a blanket around yourself, like you never went anywhere.

He potters about the flat for a while as you watch some shitty soap opera set in the countryside. You’re not exactly sure what’s going on but it’s probably the usual: affairs, murders, explosions. All the regular things that happen in quaint English villages.

Charlie sits down next to you, getting anxious that the others have still not yet returned. Finally, you brave asking the question you’ve wanted to ask for the past half an hour. “Who is she?” you ask and he looks at you puzzled.

“Who is who?”

“The girl in the photo you keep in that box.”

He glares at you and you think he is going to yell but instead he just laughs wryly. “She _was_ my daughter. She died of Leukaemia three years ago.”

“I’m sorry,” you say. You never knew what to say in these situations. You can only imagine what it is like to lose a child. “Are these her clothes?” You gesture the clothes you are wearing.

“Yeah. They were too big for her, we ordered the wrong size by mistake.” He voice is totally devoid of emotion and it is as if he is reading out a shopping list rather than talking about the clothes his daughter never had a chance to grow into. You also wonder about that fact he said _we_ indicating he had a partner once but she doesn’t seem to be here now. But before you have a chance to ask he gets up and grabs his phone. “I’m just going to give Nate a ring again,” he says before disappearing again.

You start to look around again, getting antsy over being left alone. You’re routing through a chest of drawers when you accidentally knock it, forcing the vase on top of it to topple over and it smashes into dozens of pieces. Then you see that inside the vase was a large wad of cash. It lies there, practically staring at you dead in the eye. You don’t want to take it. This man has been kind to you. But this is the answer to all your prayers. You can pay off your debts tonight and be on your way. Alone, just like you have always been. You grab your clean clothes from the dryer and shove the cash in your jean pocket and close the door behind you.

 

As the night goes on you wonder around, looking for a safe place to lie down and get some rest for a couple of hours. Yet tonight all the park benches and doorways in London seem to be taken. As you walk you start to realise you no longer know where you are and just as you are about to turn back you hear voices coming from around the corner. You poke your head around the corner to see the people you had stole the box from earlier.

“You are sure this is the right address?” you hear one of the men in a formal black suit say. As he repeats the address written on the piece of paper in his hands, you realise that he is talking about Charlie’s place. Four men get into the car and you run as quickly as you can in the opposite direction, hoping you can remember the way you came.

Thankfully, London traffic is on your side and you are able to reach your destination ahead of the men in black. You hammer on the doorbell, hoping for a reply and begin to worry when no one replies for a couple of minutes.

“Kid are you trying to give us earache?” an American accent replies through the door and you are relieved to hear Sully’s voice. He opens it though you don’t step inside, knowing there isn’t time.

“Those people are on their way. You need to get out. They know where you live,” you say, panic in your voice.

There is no reply from him as Charlie and Sully join the two of you and you fear that they don’t believe your words. “You better be telling the truth about this,” Sully warns. “If we end up travelling halfway across the country and-”

“Er I’m pretty sure she is,” Nate defends you.

“How do you know?”

“Maybe because they’re getting out of that car right now.” He points to the black car not too far away with four men pouring out, all holding guns. They spot you immediately and start to come your way.

“Shit we gotta move,” says Charlie as the three men get into their own car as quickly as possible, dragging you with them. You are not quite sure how you ended up in this situation, sitting in a beat-up car with three strangers, being chased by James Bond wannabes.

Eventually you manage to lose them and you notice you are travelling to the outskirts of London. Further than you’ve ever been before. “We’ve lost ‘em,” says Charlie who is driving.

“Where are we going?” you ask, making Charlie jump like he has forgotten you were even there. But then you remember how little you’ve spoken before so it is most likely a surprise for them to hear you speak.

“We’ve just got someone else to pick up and then we can drop you as close to London as possible,” he replies.

You heart sinks a little when he says he will take you back. You can’t say you haven’t warmed to these guys. You slump down in your seat and stare out the window until you slowly drop off into sleep.

 

You awake to the sound of a car door opening and muffled voices. To your surprise, however, one of those voices belongs to a female. You unstrap yourself and get out of the car, and find that you’re in an almost empty parking lot.

“Did you get the letters?” Charlie says to the woman. She is beautiful and you stand there, mesmerised by her dark beauty.

“I sure did,” she says in an Australian accent. Her gaze moves from Charlie and fixes on you. She looks at your peculiarly, like she is tying to figure you out. “Who’s the kid?” she asks generally.

“We don’t know her name,” Sully replies, smoking a cigar in the meantime. “But she helped us out a lot tonight.”

As Sully and the woman chat, you take the opportunity to talk to Charlie. “Here’s your money back,” you say as you pass it to him and he takes it from you, looking beyond surprised. He probably hadn’t even noticed it was gone. “I should never have taken it. Sorry.” You look down at your feet and shift from one to the other awkwardly.

“Actually, you may have saved our arses. I didn’t have time to grab anything on the way out so this solves a lot of problems,” he replies happily and messes up your hair affectionately.

“Still… I’m sorry.”

“What were you going to spend it on kiddo?”

You stare at him, considering lying, but you have made a choice to trust these people now. They seem like they could save you and Lord knows you need saving. Even if you dislike admitting it. “Drugs.” You avoid eye contact as you speak, ashamed of your answer.

He looks at you with pity. It is a foreign look to you. “As I thought.”

You decide to brave it and ask what you’ve been wanting to ask for the whole journey. The fear of rejection had prevented you from doing so thus far but you knew it was now or never. “You think maybe….I could come with you after all?”  There is a brief moment of silence and his face is unreadable, which absolutely kills you. You want to join this adventure. You want to do great things.

“I don’t know.” He turns to the others. “You think she can join us?”

They all look at each other before Sully steps forward and puts a firm hand on your shoulder. “We’d be happy to have ya kid. Don’t let us down.”

An intense wave of happiness engulfs you, and you can’t quite believe it. You feel happy, for the first time ever. This alien feeling now feels like something you can get used to.

“I’m Chloe Frazer,” the woman finally says to you, extending her arm.

“Y/N,” you finally say, trusting them with your name. You shake Chloe’s hand and she smiles gently.

“Great, let’s get going Y/N. Oh and shotgun!” say says, racing Nate to the front seat.

“Oh come on,” Nate replies, throwing his arms up in the air before getting into the back sulkily.

Sully looks at you and raises an eyebrow. “Hope you know what you’re letting yourself in for kid,” he says as you both join Nate in the backseat.


	11. Calm Before The Storm

**You**

“Sully!” You cry as you run towards him, only to be pulled back by Charlie. You are still within firing line of Romero’s army and going to Sully would likely mean your death. But he is lying there motionless and you need to save him.

In a fit of rage, you unleash every last fibre of energy onto the remaining men and take them all out, clearing the way to Sully. You put pressure on the wound but there is blood everywhere. Sam comes over too and tears off a part of his shirt, wrapping it around the man’s waist to try to prevent him from bleeding out. Sully’s eyes flicker open but within seconds they are closed again. At least you know he is breathing.

“We have to get him to hospital,” says Charlie anxiously, following you.

“I’ll take him,” Sam volunteers, still pushing down on the wound heavily. He looks as though he knows exactly what he’s doing. “You guys carry on.”

“Wait, Charlie you’re injured too,” you say, noticing a deep cut on his head. “You should both go to hospital. We should just abandon this stupid job!”

“No way!” Charlie replies, defence mode on. Your irritation with him is rising. “I am not giving up.”

“Charlie, quit while you’re ahead okay. We’re not even ahead, they have a whole fucking army. You’ll get us all killed!” you yell.

“You can go home, you don’t even have to be here!” he screams at you. That bit hurt but you know he is just lashing out. Still, it does not help your anger.

“Ahem!” Sam interrupts. “While you are bickering, Sully is dying! Both of you need medical attention. I think Y/N should go with you guys to the hospital and I’ll try and figure out where to go next and scout the area. Find out what’s going on.”

“No, you’ll get yourself killed and Chloe isn’t here to rescue your arse this time. I can get Sully to hospital, you guys carry on together,” Charlie suggests. “Admit it man, you need her.”

“But I thought this was important to you.”

“It is but…I see no other way.”

Unfortunately, he is right. Leaving someone on their own is not a good idea but you are concerned if Charlie is strong enough to get himself and Sully to hospital in one piece. You want nothing more than to abandon this all now but now seeing how important it is to Charlie makes you want to do it for him. “Alright, Sam and I will go to the next place. Hopefully Romero’s men will focus on us and leave you a clean path.”

Charlie puts Sully into the backseat of a nearby car and drives away rapidly, filling you with worry. “It’s gonna be alright Y/N,” Sam says, putting his arm around you. To your own surprise, you don’t shake him off and actually feel yourself drawing into the hug. You needed it.

As you walk back to where you left the car, as you reach it you notice something flashing underneath. “What the hell is that?” you say as you run over to it and remove it from the car. “What the fuck!”

“They’ve been tracking us this whole damn time,” Sam says, taking out of your hands and throwing it into the water. “Track that, _assholes._ ”

“Fuck! How were we so dumb?” As you say those words you notice a rustling in the bushes beside you.

Suddenly you see more of Romero’s men coming towards you. “We gotta go!” Sam cries as you hop in the SUV and Sam drives as fast as the car will take you.

You think you will easily lose them as they were all on foot but to your dismay men on motorbikes come out of nowhere, shooting at you and trying to ram into you. You pull out your gun and try to take out as many drivers as you can. “Go faster,” you order Sam.

“I’m going as fast as I can sweetheart. Unless you want this baby to go over.”

“Don’t sweetheart me!” you reply bitterly, annoyed by the whole situation. How big is this army? Has this Romero guy got an endless supply?

“Hey why don’t you take out your anger on them and not me!”

You take Sam’s advice and continue to shoot drivers. Soon motorbikes are even exploding around you and you can’t say it doesn’t give you an adrenaline rush, making you feel like you have some power.

Eventually, you reach a road and Sam uses this to his advantage, meandering around the windy roads so that you lose as many drivers as possible. One bike, however, does not give up and comes up right beside you, making you have to dodge bullets swiftly. One piercing shot is all it takes as the driver falls off the bike and into the road.  You look behind you to see that your car is now smoking from all the bullets, which sends you into a panic. “Sam I don’t wanna worry you but this car is about to blow.”

He looks behind and takes note of the growing flames. “We’re gonna have to bail.”

“Bail where?” you cry.

“The bike. We gotta jump.”

You see the bike next to you is still running and you realise what he means. Having no other choice, he jumps from the car and, by some miracle, lands on the seat and gains control of the bike. He rides it closer to you and you leap, grabbing onto Sam’s torso for dear life. He speeds up and drives away from the car as it explodes behind the two of you.

“Think we lost ‘em all,” he says proudly as you grip onto him like a koala bear. He slows down and eventually stops the bike. “We did it, babygirl.” He turns to look at you and you both just laugh, amazed that you pulled that whole thing off.

“Yeah,” You pant, catching your breath and coming down from the adrenaline high. “We did.”

 

 

**Sam**

He finally reaches the hotel room and it is such a relief after the day he’s have had. “I’m going for a shower,” is the first thing Y/N says and he can’t say he blames her.

“I think I’ll join you,” Sam replies which earns a questionable look from her. He didn’t quite mean it like that but he now has the vision of showering with her, all naked and wet… “I mean, after you,” he corrects himself, making her giggle. _Get your mind out the gutter Drake_ , he chastises himself.

She hurries off into the bathroom as he opens his laptop and starts to examine this new disk. Making him jump out of his own skin, the laptop starts making a strange noise and he eventually realises his brother is calling him on skype. He’ll get used to technology sooner or later.

“Hey Sam, how’s it going?” Nate asks him cheerfully. Sam thinks about telling him the situation with Sully but decides against it. He doesn’t want to worry him if there’s no need yet. Sully is tough and Sam is sure he’ll make it through. “How’s the others?”

“Good, I think we’re making progress,” he lies. _It’s just a white lie though, right?_ He thinks to himself. “Sully and Charlie just went to check something out, they’ll be back later.”

“That’s great! And…wait,” Nate says, his eyes narrowing. “If Sully and Charlie are out who is in the shower? Sam, are you getting laid on the job? Come on man, that’s so unprofessional.”

“Okay first, don’t tell me you’ve never done that with Elena.” Nate rolls his eyes in response to that. No denial, Sam notes. “And second, she actually works with me.”

“You have another person on the job? I thought Chloe was on a different job with the she-devil?”

“Actually, it’s Y/N.”

“Y/N? Y/N Y/F/N? She came back? What the hell. What happened to her?”

“I don’t know, I was too afraid to ask but yeah…she’s back.” Sam hears Nate being called by Elena off screen which is probably for the best as he can’t bear lying to his little brother, again.

“Sorry man, I gotta go. Catch ya later. Good luck. Oh, and tell Y/N I said hi.” And with that Nate is gone, leaving Sam to piece together the puzzle they are obviously missing.

 

Y/N exits the bathroom after quite a long shower and joins him at the table. “Find anything?” she asks, still with only a towel wrapped around her beautiful body. He tries his hardest not to stare but hard is not the word to help him right now. “Uh yeah,” he clears his throat and shows her the disk. “I couldn’t read the writing at the bottom, it’s too worn away, but I got a g, an l, a d and an a. And I noticed there are birds around the edge so maybe this symbolises something, I don’t know.”

She stares at the disk for a while longer, trying to make out the faint letters. “I think the word is Golondrina. Spanish for swallow. There’s an island somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, famous because of the birds and-”

“And there’s a Mayan temple there.”

“How did you know what?” she asks, slight incredulity in her voice.

“Wikipedia,” he replies, showing her the page. In response she gives him a disbelieving look. “Jeez, it’s almost like you have no faith in me at all,” he jokes.

“So that’s where we’re headed?”

“Looks like it. Let’s get some room service and some shut eye before we leave. I’ll try and call Charlie, see how Sully’s doing.”

“He will be okay, won’t he?” Y/N says, and for the first time he can sense some vulnerability in her voice. She is looking to him for reassurance but he knows cannot promise anything.

In truth he doesn’t know, Sully is getting old so maybe his body won’t be able to take it. But the way she is looking at him makes him forget that and he puts on his best caring voice. “Of course he will Y/N. You have nothing to worry about. Now get outta here”

 

Sam tosses and turns all night, unable to find a comfortable position to sleep in. The storm rages outside as he listens to the sound of heavy rain lashing against the windows. As he lays there, staring up at the ceiling, he hears a knock on his door. He apprehensively opens it to find Y/N standing there, in her revealing nightie, looking anxious as hell.

“Are you okay?” he asks, though she obviously is far from it. She shakes her head and he takes her hand, leading her out of the hall and inside his room. She is practically shaking under his touch. Suddenly he becomes extremely worried. “What’s wrong princess?”

“Don’t laugh okay?” she says, folding her arms so that she is hugging herself tightly.

“I won’t,” he replies, making a cross-my-heart gesture.

“I’m kind of scared of thunderstorms. And it was freaking me out so I was hoping it would be okay if I slept here. On the couch. You won’t even know I’m here, I promise. I just didn’t want to be alone tonight.” He has never seen her so startled, with her guard completely down. He knows he is the only one here so she has no choice, but the fact she has come to him, rather than stayed alone, makes him happy. Perhaps a little happier than it should.

“Of course, you don’t even have to ask,” he replies and hands her a pillow and blanket. She lays down and wraps the blanket tightly around her, a protection thing, and he realises he should have offered her the bed but doesn’t want to disturb her now.

Time passes and the storm does not let up. He glances over to her some time later and sees how she is still shaking with fear. “Hey, you okay?” he asks.

She turns over to look at him and he notices the tear stains on her face. “I just…don’t like thunderstorms.”

“How come?” He props himself up on one elbow.

She pauses and he suspects she won’t tell him. “It just reminds me of when I was on the streets. Storms are pretty terrifying when you’re only shelter is a doorway.”

“I know-” he replies but she cuts him off.

“No you don’t!”

“Actually I do,” he says, a little harsher than he meant it. He immediately softens his voice. “Nathan and I grew up in an orphanage and we I got kicked out I had to work to provide for us but I could barely even feed myself. And then when we ran away there were times when we had no money for a motel or whatever.”

“Why did you run away?” Her voice softens too as she realises, he actually does know how she feels, rather than just saying it to comfort.

“This old lady sorta…died. Right in front of us. It was nothing to do with us but it looked like we’d killed her so we had to run from the cops.”

“Happens to you a lot, doesn’t it,” she jokes.

“Tell me about it.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed that your life had been better than mine.”

“It’s alright.”

They both go quiet again for several moments and Sam suspects she has fallen asleep. However, she sits up this time and begins to speak again. “I saw your reaction earlier. When the others were talking about their adventures. You looked sad, like me. It er…must have been hard for you. Being in prison with Nate was out there doing amazing things.”

“Yeah, it was. But I still had hope, I guess. That I’d get out and find the treasure with my little brother. It’s what kept me going. That’s why I got these tattoos. The birds, they represent-”

“Freedom?” She asks, like she really admires that.

“Yeah. But you’re right I… I hate myself for it but it’s kinda hard to not be jealous of Nathan. I love him so _so_ much but he’s got everything. He’s done all this cool stuff and he’s got Elena-”

“Is that what you want? Love?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know. Maybe not quite that but… I figured out no one has told me they loved me since my mum died. When I was thirteen. When I was in that cell it was the loneliest place in the world and it’s like time stood still, you know. And then when I came out of jail everyone had moved on. Nathan had his own life that I wasn’t really a part of. Which makes sense, he thought I died, but it just… _hurt_. That he was still the biggest part of my life but I wasn’t the biggest part of his anymore. And I always feel second best to him. Everyone prefers him to me and I know I’m not always easy to get on with but…I guess I just want someone who sees me as the most important thing in their life. Sorry, I’m rambling. You probably don’t care.” He didn’t mean to offload all of that onto her but he’s been holding it in for so long.

“If I didn’t care then why did I ask?” she says as she gets off the couch and walks over to the bed. She lays next to him and he wraps the blanket around her. This is not quite the scenario he imagined when he thought about them in bed together but it was good. He felt closer than ever to her. “If it’s any consolation I don’t think anyone has ever told me they loved me and meant it.”

He is saddened by the thought of that. It seems they are two of a kind, in more ways than one. “Not even parents?”

“My mum died a few months after I was born and my dad is…difficult.”

“Ah. Dads suck right?” He often wonders what happened to his own dad and if would ever see him again. He knew that if he did, he would punch him square in the jaw. But he doesn’t want to ask you about yours. You’ll tell him if you want to.

“Definitely. For what it’s worth, I prefer you to Nate. Not that I don’t like him but you… I misjudged you when we first met. I thought you were some sleezy womaniser who think we’re objects and that you were so full of yourself but I see now you’re nothing like that. I’m sorry.”

He cannot quite believe what he is hearing and it feels as though he is momentarily glowing. He snaps back out of it as he feels you move a little closer. “It’s fine, I figured you’d been hurt by guys like that before. I get it. And for the record I think you’re pretty great too.”

“Wow, look at us. Getting along,” she jokes. Yet feels so natural now, like they were always supposed to get along, but they were blinded by their jaded pasts.

“I know, I can’t believe it. But um, thanks for listening Y/N. I’ve not said those words out loud before so uh, it means a lot.”

It’s dark but he can see her gentle smile. The storm outside still rages on but inside it is calm. “Sam?” she says, almost too quiet to hear, but before he can reply, her lips are on his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I apologise for not updating this for so long but life has gotten in the way. More coming soon :)


	12. Morning After

**You**

You don’t know what came over you. It was like a fire burning within you, urging you forward. You had all but lunged at him, forcing your lips against his, and your heart was in your mouth as you expected him to push you back, looking disgusted. Before you’d have been sure that he wouldn’t turn you down, based on your physical appearance, but now he was a different man and you had lost the upper hand.

But sure enough he had kissed you back and pulled you closer. And it was a kiss like no other, igniting something in you that you thought long dead. He had given you passion, made you feel whole again; dispelling the numbness that had dictated your life thus far, just for a moment. How tender the kisses were.

And now you lay beside him, naked in body and soul, watching his gentle breathing as he sleeps. Suddenly you feel pangs of regret. You feel as though you could easily fall for him, but what if it _was_ just sex to him? You would get your heart broken again. But then what if he did want to be with you? You knew you couldn’t take another failed relationship. You decided this time you were going to follow your head and not your heart. You were better off alone. You always had been.

Pulling yourself out of the bed, you take Sam’s laptop and research Mayan history as much as you can before he wakes up and you have to leave. You are nervous about what he is going to say about last night and decide instead to focus on the job. Which you should have been doing anyway, last night being a distraction that you would not let happen again. No, from now on your relationship was strictly professional.

“Good morning,” Sam says cheerfully as he pulls on his boxers and joins you at the desk.

“Yeah,” you reply coldly. You don’t mean to be so icy but you’re hoping he’ll get the message without having to have a conversation about it. Cowardly, you know. “Just doing some research on the Mayans.”

He leans over you to see the screen, his half naked body mere inches from yours. You cannot deny your physically attraction to him. Last night you had noticed the three bullet marks on his stomach. At first you could see that he was a little embarrassed by them but you reassured him by kissing each one softly. He seemed to relax after that. You wondered what the other women he had been with thought of them. Did he tell them his story or did they just not ask? Were they horrified by them? Or did they like the sense of danger and mystery about him? Has anyone ever kissed them before? Made him feel like it was nothing to be ashamed or proud of? They just…were.

You are brought out of your thoughts when Sam says something about getting ready to go. You nod and go back to your room to get dressed. The two of you meet in the lobby of the hotel and head to the boat rental place. To your surprise, you get a boat without a hitch and as far as you can tell there is not tracking device attached. Romero should not be able to figure out where to head next so it should be plain sailing from here. Though you know it rarely works out that way so you are still a little on your guard.

You watch the waves gently thrash against the boat as Sam steers you out of the harbour. It is nice to be at sea again, after being landlocked for such a long time. You thought back to memories of sailing the open waves with your father. Those memories quickly evaporate as you remember what followed your childhood. You focus on the water, glistening in the sun, and the birds that chirp a warm song. Your mind drifts onto Liam, whom you were still technically engaged to. Though you doubted he would even want you back now and you were assuming it was over. At least that it what you told yourself to make you feel better. You glance over to Sam, who is also admiring the scenery. You are waiting for him to say something about what happened between the two of you but so far he has been mute. It was clearly just sex for him too then. The thought of it stings a little but at least it makes things simpler. You look in the cooler bag and pull out a beer, handing him one. He smiles at you as he takes it. “Thanks,” he says. Again you sit in silence, not knowing what to say.

“Land ahoy!” he announces, after some time, pointing at the horizon. He passes you the binoculars and you see an island, with a great ancient temple situated on a hill, in sight. “Looks promising.”

“Yeah,” you say. You are starting to get a buzz now, as you witness the magnificent temple. You have missed this. “Yeah it does.”

The boat reaches the shore and you exit, heaving yourself up the sandy hill. “Wonder what we’ll find here,” says Sam.

“Hopefully something actually useful.”

“Well obviously but I don’t exactly mind exploring a temple no one has set foot in for thousands of years.” He smiles, which you find endearing. You love that he loves this as much as you. You shake those thoughts from your mind. 

“You don’t know that.”

“Wow, way to suck the fun out of everything Y/N,” he says, but he laughs as he does so, so that you know he means it as a joke. You smile as you continue up the hill, getting sand in your boots in the process.

 

You finally reach the entrance of the temple, grand as it is. You stand there in awe as Sam catches up to you. “Shit. Stairway is busted,” he says, observing the pile of rubble that you are now greeted with instead of a staircase. Why could they not have doors at the bottom? 

“I can see an opening up there.” You point to a relatively high up hole in the stone work. You are trying to formulate a route to climb up there but before you can finish, Sam is already scaling the wall with his rope and using some bricks that stick out as monkey bars. You decide to think _‘fuck it’_ and follow in his direction. Soon he topples into the structure, and pulls you up with great force.

You both walk to the centre of the room, Sam using his lighter as a source of light, and as you draw nearer you are horrified by what you see. “Well shit,” is his response.

You take a step forward as he shines his lighter on what appears to be a stone altar. It is covered in bones and a ritual knife lies nearby. “Lovely,” you remark, turning away from the ghastly scene. Instead you focus your attention to one of the walls, that bears drawings of a man surrounded by half a dozen little stars. No not stars, suns. “Kinich Ahau,” you say, as Sam joins you. “Mayan sun god.”

“So these poor bastards where sacrifices to Kinich Ahau,” he speculates.

You try not to giggle at his abhorrent pronunciation as you nod along. “Think so. I thought human sacrifice was more the Aztec's scene but I guess it did happen occasionally.”

Sam continues to observe the drawings as you look around a little. You feel bad for how you’ve acted towards Sam, there’s no reason why you cannot remain friends. After all, you had trusted either other with some personal information. And you get the impression that Sam has not been able to talk about his feelings nearly enough.

Grinning to yourself, you pick up at skull and walk back to Sam, ready to attempt to break the ice. You hold the skull by his face and he jumps back in fright. His screams echo off the enclosed room; a cacophony of wails. “Alas poor Yorrick, I knew him well,” you say, laughing to yourself, but Sam is not yet seeing the funny side.

“What the fuck Y/N, you scared the shit outta me!” he complains, wiping the dust from his shoulder.

“Revenge for the shark.” In hindsight, you do feel a bit bad. For the skull.

“Okay you got me there,” he replies, his expression softening. He looks at you and for a moment his eyes seem sad; a sudden wave of sombreness washing over him. And in a second, it’s gone and his face is unreadable again. Did he want to talk about what happened but then backed out? Afraid of what you might say? Or not say? “Let’s keep moving.”

 

**Sam**

He leads her safely out of the room and into yet another dark and narrow corridor. He was beginning to get sick and tired of these locations. “So you think these symbols mean we’re on the right track?” he asks.

“Hope so,” she replies bluntly, following closely behind him.

He doesn’t exactly know what he’s done to make her so cold towards him but he can infer that she deeply regrets last night. Which is fine for him. It leaves things uncomplicated. He’s happy to have just spent the night with her. Everything was fine.

Except it wasn’t. He had confessed a lot to her last night that he had never confessed to anyone. That wasn’t just lust talking, there was something…more. Could it be love? He wasn’t sure yet. But he knew that he was upset with how you were acting. Not even having the courtesy to tell him it was a one-night thing, instead acting like they were nothing but strangers each other. But of course, he would not let you know this. He’s spent a lifetime running from his problems, why stop now?

Eventually, the winding corridor leads them to a small chamber and he’s guessing they are now in the centre of the temple. They see six pieces of art, on pieces of bark, that depict scenes of Kinich Ahau. Below it there is a table with panels, each with a different number of dots and lines on it. “What do we got here?” Sam says, trying to make head and tail of the contraption.

Y/N looks at it for a while before smiling to herself. Sam has never met anyone quite so quick thinking as her. Is there anything she can’t do? “Is it like morse code of something?”

“No,” she replies not looking up. “It’s Mayan numbers. They’re like Roman numerals. I think they correspond with the pictures on the wall. See this one is the number one.” She picks up the round wooden panel and shows it to him. “It has one dot on it, so it matches to this picture that has one sun in it.”

“So if we put the panels in the right order then something should happen?”

“I guess,” she shrugs, not giving him much confidence, but nevertheless he helps her put the panels into the correct spaces on the table. “Nothing's happening,” she observes, disheartened.

Sam’s eyes glaze over the room, searching for something they’ve missed. He looks up to see a bronze brazier above the scene. To his side he sees some rubble that he can climb up and if he’s lucky just be able to reach the brazier.

“What on earth are you doing?” Y/N questions but then falls silent as she realises his master plan. As he lights the brazier with his lighter, the suns are illuminated and they hear the shifting of a mechanism above them.

“That should do it,” says Sam before climbing down back to Y/N. _“Thank you Sam, that was genius.”_

“Don’t get cocky,” she replies before walking towards the next corridor, that hopefully leads them to the top of the temple.

Sure enough the reach the top, after several minutes of arduous stair climbing, and are greeted by fresh air once more. He takes a minute to regain his breath, when it is taken from him again. “Wow, would ya look at that view,” Sam says, gazing out of the stone window. From here he can see the rest of the island; a gorgeous mix of green, gold and blue. 

“It’s beautiful,” she responds, but is more focused on the contraption in the centre of the room. It looks almost like an enlarged astrolabe, with mirrors surrounding it. "This is interesting. The technology downstairs was Mayan but this is of Ponce De Leon's time. Maybe he restored what puzzles where already here?" 

“Maybe but I guess we just er…push this?” Sam walks over and points to a golden button at the heart of the object before them. “May I have the honour?”

“Sure,” she says, and he is greatly anticipating what is going to happen next. This doesn’t exactly look much like a fountain to him. Another brazier emerges from the centre of the ‘astrolabe’ and again, Sam lights it. Light bounces off the mirrors and together it makes a golden line, leading out of the window and into the wild. He walks forward, right to the very edge, and uses the binoculars to see, in the distance, the beam is pointing in the direction of another temple. He passes the binoculars to Y/N. “Guess we know where we’re heading next.”

“It’s never easy, is it?” he complains.

“Nope,” she says, pushing the binoculars into his chest and grabs her rope to lower down.


	13. Wanting

**You**

You gaze up at the intense beam as you feel the warm sun beating down on you. It leads you across the island and you’ll have quite a walk to get there, but you don’t mind so much. It’s definitely better than climbing. You are already tired but both you and Sam know you must make the most of the advance you already have on Romero. Though you’ve been more careful, you are still nervous that he will just spring out of nowhere at any time. Sam jumps off his rope, onto the sand and rolls it back up. He joins you where you are standing, lost in the scenery. You decide to try and forget about last night and focus on the job, being as pleasant as you can. You feel guilty as Sam hadn’t really done anything wrong; it was just you being unable to control your own emotions.

“Ready?” he asks, putting a gentle hand on your shoulder. He retracts it immediately when he notices you unintentionally wince a little.

“As I’ll ever be,” you respond with a half-smile. Weariness is taking its toll, having not slept properly for several nights and you think that he must feel the same. Then again, he is probably used to it, having slept in jail for fifteen years.

“This better actually lead somewhere,” he says as you both start walking.  “I got bills to pay.”

“Maybe you should get a regular nine-to-five job then,” you reply with an edge of snark, not quite meaning it to sound as harsh as it came out. That was always your problem.

“No way, that’d kill me. I love this. The adventure, the locations, the history,” he smiles reminiscently, thankfully having not been offended by you. You liked that about him. It’s like he could almost read you and knew exactly what you were thinking at times. You think he understands people much more than he lets on. “Certainly, beats prison.”

“I guess.”

“You saying you didn’t miss it even a little bit? That’s not why you came back?”

“I’m doing this as a favour to Charlie,” you half lie. You are doing it for that reason but you are still not ready to admit just how you feel.

“What’s the deal with you two?” You can sense he’s wanted to ask this question for a while now but has been to afraid.

You sigh, trying to think how you can make the answer as vague as possible but also say something that will satisfy him so he won’t ask any further questions. “I guess he just wasn’t happy that I wanted to lead a normal life. Lost a good thief.”

“It’s more than that Y/N, any fool can see he cares about you. That reminds me, Nate says hi.”

You smile at that. You’d have thought he’d be mad too but he was never really one to hold grudges. You hoped after all this you’d be able to see him again and finally meet the woman who was able to get him to settle down. And you would love to see Chloe again. “Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask, how come Chloe isn’t here? Sounds right up her street.”

“She’s in Norway working on something with her new business partner.”

“She has a new business partner?”

“Yep. Nadine Ross.” You see the disgust on his face as it retorts at the sound of her name. You can’t help but giggle at that.

“Wait, _the_ Nadine Ross. As in Shoreline?” You can picture the woman in your head but you can’t see how she ended up on your side.

“The one and only.”

“Chloe’s new business partner is scary spice?!”

Sam chuckles, almost tripping over a rock he didn’t see. “Seems like it. She’s no less scary now, believe me.”

“How did that even happen?”

“I don’t even know to be honest. Chloe and I were in India looking for the tusk of Ganesh and I kind of got captured and she got help. Turns out that help was…Nadine Ross. She’s been out of work because _someone_ kinda destroyed her whole army.” You knew by ‘someone’ that meant him and Nate. You had no idea that they’d had dealings with her before. “How’d you know here anyway?”

“Oh, just heard stuff about her,” you lie and thankfully he seems satisfied. You continue walking through the greenery, following an almost hidden path, to the next temple. You are sweating like pigs now and you hope the fountain is close as you are starting to think you can’t take much more of the sweltering heat.

“You doing alright there?” asks Sam as he notices you panting.

“Yeah just not really used to the heat.” He chuckles. “It’s alright for you, you’ve been in Panama for years. Some of us are more accustomed to grey skies and drizzle.”

“Fair point. You wanna stop for a bit?”

“I’ll be okay,” you say, forcing one foot in front of the other. Sam hands you his water bottle, yours has been empty for some time, and you take it, smiling at him generously. You immediately chastise yourself, letting your emotions run wild again and only over a measly bottle of water.

Eventually you make it to the next place, swatting several hundred flies and gnats out of you face in the process. When you get there you see that, like the last one, the entrance to the temple is collapsed and you will have to look for an alternative entrance. “Starting to think there’s a theme occurring here,” says Sam as he readies his rope yet again.

“Ponce De Leon certainly didn’t want to make things easy for us, did he?” you reply, laughing gently as you throw your rope up and catches the ledge. You hoist yourself up and fall ungracefully into the chamber. Again, you follow the winding corridors down as far as you can go, staying as close to Sam as possible the whole time. 

 “So, who’s temple are we in this time?” Sam asks.

“Don’t know yet. Do these corridors ever end?”

Eventually, you come to a gate. You wind the leaver up as Sam holds the gate for you to duck under. “Why thank you,” you say snarkily and to your surprise he slaps your ass as you walk past. You yelp a little but he’s walking on like nothing happened before you even have a chance to protest. Not that it repulsed you. You shake your head to try and snap yourself out of it and follow him into a huge room, filled with carvings all over the walls and floors. Sam uses his lighter to light the braziers so you can get a better look. In the centre of the floor, there is a Mayan carving of a surprising accurate depiction of the globe with maize scattered around it.

“Yum Kaax,” you say to Sam who is already on the other side of the room.

He turns to you, rather confused. “I’m sorry?”

“Earth god. Also the god of maize.”

“Ha, a-maize-ing,” he is barely able to say before laughing at his own joke hysterically. You look away to hide your smile and roll you eyes, carrying on searching the room for whatever puzzles you’ll undoubtedly be expected to solve. “Hey Y/N,” Sam calls and you join him where his is standing, beside a pillar. “It looks like there’s some kind of leaver in here.”

You look inside and see that he is right, you can just about see the mechanism through the hand-sized hole. You look around and note it is not the only one. “Yeah there’s a few in here.”

“Which one do we pull?”

You look at it closely and see that each pillar has a different symbol on it. This one in particular being a waterfall. “I don’t know.”

“Well let’s give this one a try.” He steps forward to put his arm inside but you stop him quickly.

“Wait!” You search around and notice a small rock near your foot on the ground. You toss it through the hole and the mechanism snaps, crushing the stone into tiny little grains of sand.

“Holy shit!” Sam says in horror. “I could’ve lost my arm, thanks Y/N.”

“Idiot.”

“Hey!” You raise your eyebrows at him and he chuckles. “So what, we keep tossing rocks in there until one doesn’t try to kill us?”

“I guess.” You continue to test the levers but with no luck, they crush every single one of the rocks. You sigh, while Sam looks completely puzzled, and take a step back as you try to think about this logically. “Wait,” you say and Sam looks up at you wishfully.

“You got something?”

You look at the depiction of the earth on the ground and note there are two sculptures either side of the room. One of the sun and one of the moon. Sam follows your gaze and tags onto your line of thought. “We pull them at the same time?”

“I think that’s the only way to stop it shredding our hands.”

“Are you sure?”

“Nope. But it’s all I got.” You shrug and Sam looks concerned but nevertheless he walks to the sun pillar and you take the sun. “One three. Ready?” He nods. “One, two, three.” You both pull the leavers hesitantly and suddenly, to your joy, you hear movement.

“Well that did somethin’.”

Suddenly, the earth starts to open up and a staircase winding down is revealed. You follow Sam down the stairs and reach a small room, with a large chest in the centre. Sam goes to open it but it does not budge. “Step aside sir,” you say as you kneel by the lock.

“I can pick locks too you know,” he says grumpily.

“Yeah but I’ll be faster.” Before he can argue, you have to chest open and pull out a cog. Confused you make your way back up the stairs. You are greeted by a mechanical lever you didn’t notice when you entered. You walk up to it and place the cog in the position it was meant to be in and pull the lever. Yet again you hear movement coming from above and follow the stairs upwards.

The procedure is the same once you reach the top and you are soon on your way to the next temple.

“This one looks quite far away, I think we’re better going back and getting the boat,” says Sam and you agree, following him back the way you came.

You struggle to walk, dragging your feet through the sand, wondering how the hell Sam keeps on going like this. Finally, you reach your boat again and Sam starts to steer you round to the other side of the island. You have offered several times to take the reign but he seems to like it. You take a seat and admire to view again. Out of the corner of your eye you see a flicker on the horizon, as the sun dances off the shiny back of a group of dolphins. “Oh my god, Sam look! Dolphins!” you say, voice abundant with enthusiasm.

Sam looks over and a huge smile creeps onto his face at the sight of you. He stops the boat and comes to watch them swim majestically with you. “You know it’s stuff like this that really makes me thankful to be outta prison.”

You smile back and you find yourself leaning on him gently. You admire them, swimming around like nothing else mattered. They were free. You envied them. In a moment of madness and excitation, you step away from Sam and remove your top, followed by your shorts. Sam looks at you befuddled, but also in awe, as you toss your shoes at him and dive headfirst into the water. The coolness engulfs you and you bask in the glorious feeling of you body temperature lowering. You dip your head under the water and make splashes around you.

“What the hell are you doing?” asks Sam, leaning over the side of the boat.

“Swimming with dolphins!” you say before swimming towards the beautiful creatures. You stop, hoping you don’t scare them away, but they start to swim around you, completely at peace. You turn around to see Sam swimming towards you, also only in his underwear.

“Don’t tell him I said this but you’re definitely more fun to adventure with than Nate,” he says as he pats a dolphin on the nose.

“They’re amazing, aren’t they? I know you can see them in captivity but seeing them in their natural environment is just so much more magical.” You catch his eyes and they are saying the same as yours. You both long for freedom. You thought freedom and loneliness were synonymous but perhaps this group of dolphins were proving you wrong. “What do you call a group of dolphins?” you ask him as one of them boops you on the shoulder playfully.

“I don’t know, what _do you_ call a group of dolphins?”

“It wasn’t a joke,” you say and you both laugh together. “I thought you knew everything, oh wise one.”

“I’ll find out. Just for you.” As he says that you hold each other’s gaze for several moments, wondering what the other is thinking but being to afraid to ask. You both absent-mindedly lean in and for a second you think his is going to kiss you but this time he is the one to back away. “We should…uh… get back to the mission.”

“Yeah,” you reply awkwardly as you both say goodbye to the dolphins and swim back to the boat. You are left with a sour taste in your mouth as you find yourself wanting more. Wanting him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been ages again :(


End file.
